Artificial intelligence in museums: three Transkribus case studies

Today, many industries are employing artificial intelligence (AI) to remain competitive and innovative. But what about museums? As institutions based around physical objects, museums may seem ill-suited to the digital age. However, they can derive significant benefits from integrating AI into their operations, enhancing access to museum collections and helping to manage extensive archives of written documents.

In this blog, we will explore how museums are leveraging AI and examine specific museum projects that have successfully implemented Transkribus’ AI tools.

Technology plays an increasingly important role in the museum sector. © Igor Shalyminov

From Machine Learning to Virtual Reality: the Evolving Role of Technology in Museums

Museums have traditionally relied on established methods for exhibiting and conserving their collections, which has, in part, led to them adopting AI technologies more slowly than other sectors. However, some pioneering museums have already begun to harness AI to enhance their services. For instance, some museums are now using AI to make exhibits more accessible to visitors with hearing impairments and speakers of foreign languages. Other museums have created AI-powered virtual guides for their exhibits, while augmented reality is being increasingly incorporated into museum displays to create more immersive and engaging experiences for visitors.

Many museums are also employing AI to digitise their extensive collections of written documents and further preserve these valuable materials. By making their collections digital, museums are not only safeguarding them for future generations but also making them more accessible to both researchers and the public. This increased accessibility ensures that the knowledge contained within these documents can be more widely shared, enriching our understanding of history and culture across society.

Museums can use AI to digitise their extensive collections of handwritten documents. © Anna Auza

Transkribus as a Digitisation Tool for Museums

One of the most advanced AI tools in this field is Transkribus, which offers two primary benefits for museums: conservation and accessibility. Museums can upload scans of their documents and store them in a private, user-friendly Transkribus collection, where they can then be automatically transcribed, tagged, and searched using AI tools. Transkribus also provides a feature called Transkribus Sites, an intelligible interface that allows museums to share their transcriptions with the research community and the general public.

In addition, the portable Transkribus ScanTent enables users to efficiently scan large quantities of documents using only a smartphone. This technology simplifies the conservation of archives and helps museums conduct the research necessary for new exhibits. In short, Transkribus facilitates the conservation and management of archives and improves their accessibility for museologists and visitors alike.

The ScanTent enables documents to be scanned in a low-cost, efficient way. © Transkribus

The Future of Transkribus in Museums

In addition to the tools already available on the platform, the Transkribus team is actively developing innovative AI tools to facilitate the extraction of tangible, structured data from the unstructured information contained in documents. One such feature is named entity recognition, which will automatically identify key information within extensive sets of historical documents and organise it into a coherent structure. Manually performing this task would require significant time and resources, but AI makes it easily achievable.

Another tool that will soon be available on Transkribus is a specialised recognition model for tables. This will be particularly useful for museums that manage large collections of catalogues and other finding aids and need a quick, efficient way to digitally organise their content.

Transkribus is currently developing several AI tools to assist with the digitisation of historical documents. © Transkribus

Spotlight on Success: Case Studies & Examples

Let’s take a closer look at how Transkribus has been implemented into different museum operations:

The Museum für Naturkunde is one of Berlin’s most prestigious museums. © Carola Radke, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin

Museum für Naturkunde

Berlin’s Museum für Naturkunde embarked on an ambitious project to digitise and extract data from over 250,000 insect specimen identification tags. By leveraging our named entity recognition model, the museum created a structured dataset from this enormous amount of information. This project is a major step toward enabling Collection Discovery and Development — by making the museum's biodiversity archives available to researchers and the public through its data portal.

By using Transkribus, the Musée des Hospitalières de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal can prepare more thoroughly for future exhibitions. © Gene.arboit via Wikimedia Commons

Musée des Hospitalières

The Musée des Hospitalières de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal has chosen Transkribus' AI tools to prepare for the renewal of its permanent exhibition, as well as for the creation of temporary ones. Using the keyword search function, the museum is systematically inventorying considerable masses of historical documents. This AI-driven approach is helping the museum share the heritage it preserves as exhaustively as possible.

Technology is at the forefront of the National Museums of World Culture. © The World Culture Museums/Beatrice Törnros

National Museums of World Culture

In Sweden, the National Museums of World Culture manages an astounding collection that includes over 500,000 objects, a million images, and hundreds of meters of archival material. To make these unique documents more accessible, the museums are using Transkribus Sites to publish large collections online for everyone to enjoy. This initiative allows both researchers and the general public to explore these invaluable archives from wherever they are in the world.

Find out more about Transkribus

Artificial intelligence is unlocking new possibilities for museums, helping them preserve their collections and engage with the public in innovative ways.

If you're interested in implementing Transkribus at your institution, then we are ready to help. You can try our Transkribus.ai demo version for free, or if you already have a project, then simply arrange a consultation with our team to find out more about how Transkribus can help prepare your museum for the digital future.

This blog article was written by Frédéric Dagenais.