FREE WEBINAR: When AI Comes Knocking: A Decision Framework for Archival Collections

Posted on May 21, 2026 in Webinars

A librarian assesses archival documents for AI training

Together with our sister content vertical, LibTech Insights, Toward Inclusive Excellence is proud to announce its upcoming webinar, “When AI Comes Knocking: A Decision Framework for Archival Collections.”

Tech companies are approaching libraries and archives seeking access to unique collections for AI training. These requests force a question most institutions have never had to answer: under what conditions, if any, should we allow our holdings to train commercial AI systems?

This webinar introduces the UVA Archival AI Protocol, a decision framework downloaded over 6,000 times since its release, and the Statement of Shared Practice, a coalition commitment now signed by 17 institutions and growing. Together, they reframe AI training access as a disposition decision rather than an access decision, a distinction that changes how libraries evaluate risk, obligation, and community trust.

By the end of this session, you will:

  1. Know how to distinguish disposition decisions from access decisions, and why that distinction determines everything that follows.
  2. Have a step-by-step method for classifying AI-related requests, from vendor contract clauses to direct training partnerships.
  3. Understand how the Statement of Shared Practice translates individual institutional decisions into collective action, and how your institution can join.

Whether your institution has already received an AI training request or expects to, this session provides a structured approach you can bring back and apply immediately.

The webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, July 14, at 2:00 PM (EST). Can’t make it? Register anyway, and you’ll receive a link to the Zoom recording afterward.

Register Now!

Speakers:

  • Image of Leo Lo

    Leo Lo

    University Librarian and Dean of LibrariesUniversity of Virginia
    Leo S. Lo is University Librarian and Dean of Libraries at the University of Virginia and Special Advisor to the Provost on AI Literacy. He founded UVA’s Artificial Intelligence Literacy and Action Lab (AILA) and developed the Archival AI Protocol and Statement of Shared Practice, now signed by 17 institutions.His CLEAR Framework for AI prompting has been featured in over 200 LibGuides across academic libraries worldwide, and his Universal AI Literacy Framework has been adopted and adapted at multiple universities and libraries. As ACRL President (2024–2025), he led the development of the ACRL AI Competencies for Library Workers.His current research focuses on the AI answer economy – how AI systems are transforming the way people find, evaluate, and trust information. His writing has appeared in the Journal of Academic Librarianship, College & Research Libraries, The Guardian, and The Conversation. He holds an EdD from the University of Pennsylvania and a Postgraduate Diploma in AI from Oxford’s Saïd Business School.
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Header image is a detail of This is Harlem by Jacob Lawrence. Courtesy of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. © 2021 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. For more information, click here.

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