Contract for GenAI for Public History Project

Group Members: Sage Milton, Daniel Stell, Emma Findler, Connor O’Brien 

 

Mission Statement:  

We are looking into ways that Generative AI can be used in Public History analysis and processes. Creating Metadata, transcriptions, and a chatbot based on the scrapbooks, photo albums and journals from the University Special Collections of Alum history when they were attending the institution from 1940 to 1990. Our goal is to train the Gemini chatbot to have a focus on the history of university student life from the information collected and created from the metadata and transcription process with other Gemini AI threads. The training will involve plugging in metadata into an AI chatbot that we will create from compiling visual and transcribed pieces of information from UMW student archives.  

 

Tools: 

• Gemini 3 (Pro) 

• The primary AI tool we will be using is to store data, transcribe various documents, and train as a chatbot. 

• In case Gemini fails to work, we will use the agents available on ai.umw.edu.  

• WP Accessibility (Plugin for WordPress) 

• This plugin will allow us to ensure that the website is accessible to all, as well as keeping it within the school’s accessibility guidelines. 

• WordPress as a website hosting on Domain on One’s Own 

• URL: genai.umwhistory.org 

• Theme (Possible Official WordPress Themes):  

• Twenty Seventeen 

• Twenty-Twenty Two 

• Twenty-Twenty Four 

• Twenty-Twenty Five 

• The Goal with the Themes is to create a modern enough feeling website (to fit with the aesthetic of AI) while also keeping it authentic, educational, and easy to navigate. 

• Site Tabs/Content Areas:  

• Homepage: An introduction to the project with information on what the project is about and how it could be useful.  

• Statement about AI: Discusses how AI can be useful, its ethics, and possible drawbacks. 

• Transcription: Discusses the quality of the AI transcription, displays the original documents, and goes through the process of using the AI for this subject. 

• Metadata: Discusses how the AI is storing the data, possibly displays and organizes the original data, and goes through the process of using the AI for this subject. 

• Chatbot: Discusses how the AI can be used, what topics it covers, and goes through the process of using the AI for this subject. 

 

Advertising: 

• Contact UMW history professors to possibly share the site with their classes  

• Creating flyer to hang in Monroe Hall 

• Contacting the Digital Knowledge Center and collaborating with them to share the process of using AI with Public History analysis from the site  

 

Project/Data Sustainability: 

• Creating a separate Google account for the project to use for the AI program 

• Compiling the information and photos used into the Google account 

• Sending the account information to Professor McClurken at the end of semester 

 

Schedule/Milestones: 

• Week 7 (Feb. 23rd – 27th)  

• Bones of the website created  

• Start the photo selection from Special Collection Photo albums and request digitization of selected photos (30 to 50 photos) with help from Angie Kemp 

• Compile the previously digitized photo selection into the file on the projects Google account 

• Selection of Scrapbook pages from the Special Collections (at most 30 pages from Scrapbooks to transcribe) 

• Submit digitization forms for the Scrapbook pages 

• 8-minute presentation on Feb. 26th  

• Week 9 (Mar. 9th – 13th) 

• Process the images into Gemini 

• Review the content and source tags given by Gemini 

• Use Gemini to start transcription process of Scrapbook pages 

• Compile results from transcription and image processing into the two folders in the Google account 

• Full creation of Chatbot 

• 3-minute presentation on Mar. 12th  

• Week 10 (Mar. 16th – 20th) 

• Finish demonstration videos for the image processing and transcription process 

• Chatbot dry runs 

• Week 11 (Mar. 23rd – 27th) 

• 8-minute presentation on Mar. 24th  

• Week 12 (Mar. 30th – Apr. 3rd)  

• Reviewing accessibility, adding anything that is missing  

• Website review, check functionality  

• 10-minute progress report on Apr. 2nd  

• Week 13 (Apr. 6th – 10th) 

• Finalizing any last-minute details  

• Project Summary 

• Legacy page creation 

• Projects due on Apr. 9th  

• Week 14 (Apr. 13th – 17th) 

• Website and project revision 

• Script creation for history symposium  

• Begin slideshow creation  

• Week 15 (Apr. 20th – 24th)  

• Finalize the slideshow  

• Meet and practice before Friday  

• History symposium on Apr. 24th  

 

Division of Labor: 

• Connor:  

• Transcriptions 

• Accessibility review 

• Primary Website Development  

• Daniel:  

• Chatbot training 

• Taking Metadata collected from Emma and Sage and plugging it into the AI 

• Training the AI to respond to prompts with the indexed information  

• Explanation and creation videos 

• Emma:  

• Metadata creation  

• Compiling source and content tags from the UMW Special Collections Archive  

• Plugging data into the AI 

• Using AI to create descriptions and Alt text for photos 

• Explanation videos 

• Website review 

• Sage:  

• Photo selection 

• Metadata creation 

• Compiling source and content tags from the UMW Special Collections Archive  

• Plugging data into the AI 

• Using AI to create descriptions and Alt texts for photos 

• Review AI creations 

 

Accessibility: 

• Alt text for images (Sage) 

• Captions and Audio Description in metadata explanation videos (Emma & Sage) 

• Captions and Audio Description for Chatbot creation and explanation videos (Daniel) 

 

Summary/Legacy Page: 

• Summary of project, description of site functionality (Connor) 

• Summary of sources, key screenshots (Sage) 

• Summary of program usage (Daniel) 

 

Digital Signatures: 

Sage Milton 

Daniel S. Stell 

Emma Findler  

Connor O’Brien