How the Library of Congress is using both AI and volunteers to unlock public broadcasting history
How the Library of Congress is using both AI and volunteers to unlock public broadcasting history
Publish Date: 2026-05-22 17:42:00
Source Domain: www.nextgov.com
The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB), a collaboration between GBH and the Library of Congress, seeks to make historic public media more accessible and searchable using AI-generated transcripts. A public-facing correction layer for this effort is FixIt+, a volunteer platform where users correct and update machine-generated transcripts from older radio and television programs. This project aims to improve the accuracy of transcripts, making valuable recordings tied to civil rights, national security, and important historical moments more discoverable. With over 100 contributing collections, the project helps to bring a diverse range of American public media history to light, ensuring important historical moments become accessible for future generations.
Key Points:
– AAPB aims to make historical public media accessible by correcting AI-generated transcripts with FixIt+, a volunteer platform.
– AI technology provides accurate yet imperfect transcripts, necessitating human corrections for historical accuracy.
– FixIt+ involves volunteers in the historical preservation process, ensuring important voices from the past are searchable and usable.
– Corrections made by volunteers improve the searchability and accessibility of the vast archive covering a wide spectrum of American public media history.
– The endeavor supports the mission of the AAPB to turn its catalog into a living, interactive, and fully discoverable resource for all.
