Descriptive Notes is pleased to share a new post in our AI & Description Series, wherein Anthony Cheney Guzmán discusses a potential double erasure problem when materials relating to historically marginalized communities are not described and accessible for AI scraping in "The Double Erasure Problem." You can find the blogpost here: https://saadescription.wordpress.com/2026/08/04/the-double-erasure-problem/
In the post, Anthony grounds his thoughts around the erasure from the historical record caused by materials existing only in backlogs - both in terms of physical access as well as the digital commons - with his own experience processing his grandmother Olga Iglesias' collection, now housed at the Digital Library of the Caribbean, using AI-assisted metadata extraction tools he developed. To learn more, read the whole post, "The Double Erasure Problem."
This post relates directly to our most recently published post - the two were independently submitted but are naturally in conversation. If interested in exploring the topic more, please see Elizabeth Lhost's "Are the chatbots coming for our collections? Or, reflections on navigating AI for archival description and online access" published last month.
Descriptive Notes continues to solicit posts for this current series on AI and archival description. We welcome case studies, editorial or perspective pieces, situated around questions such as: Are you using AI as a tool for archival description? If so, what specific work are you attempting/accomplishing with it? What have you found to be the benefits and challenges? If you've chosen not to use AI in your descriptive practice, what factors or concerns have influenced that decision, and what challenges or pressures are you encountering as a result? Posts might describe descriptive workflows or projects into which you've integrated generative AI, the challenges of implementing AI, guidelines or guardrails for using generative AI in description, how you've advocated for (or against) the use of AI in your descriptive practice … and more!
Submit your pitches to saadescription@gmail.com. You can read more on our submission guidelines here: https://saadescription.wordpress.com/guidelines/.
We are also always interested in receiving submissions for any of our existing series, as well as any announcements or updates, conference dispatches, history and heritage month-related posts, as well as our longtime favorite finding aids pieces.
Best,
Betts Coup
Blog Editor, Descriptive Notes
------------------------------
Betts Coup
Head of Archival Operations
Technical Services for Archives & Special Collections
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA
------------------------------