IDI
@institutional.org
A research center at Harvard working to strengthen society’s connection to knowledge by advancing our access to and understanding of the data that shapes AI.
Reposted by IDI
Even if you're not a partner library, you might be curious about what it's like to work with GRIN. Our technical report has a wealth of details. arxiv.org/abs/2511.11447
GRIN Transfer: A production-ready tool for libraries to retrieve digital copies from Google Books
Publicly launched in 2004, the Google Books project has scanned tens of millions of items in partnership with libraries around the world. As part of this project, Google created the Google Return Inte...
arxiv.org
November 20, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Even if you're not a partner library, you might be curious about what it's like to work with GRIN. Our technical report has a wealth of details. arxiv.org/abs/2511.11447
Reposted by IDI
We're also sharing the pipeline we developed for Institutional Books that seamlessly dedupes, classifies, and enhances the data once GRIN Transfer brings it down. www.institutional.org/tools
Institutional Books | Institutional Data Initiative
Institutional Books 1.0 is our first release of public domain books. This set was originally digitized through Harvard Library’s participation in the Google Books project..
www.institutional.org
November 20, 2025 at 4:42 PM
We're also sharing the pipeline we developed for Institutional Books that seamlessly dedupes, classifies, and enhances the data once GRIN Transfer brings it down. www.institutional.org/tools
Reposted by IDI
When libraries join Google Books, Google not only scans their books, it also makes a wealth of image, OCR, & metadata available to them via the Google Return Interface (GRIN). But working with GRIN can be challenging, so we're releasing a tool to make it easier. www.institutional.org/posts/grin-t...
Announcing the release of GRIN Transfer
GRIN Transfer, an open source tool that allows Google Books partner libraries to more easily access their Google Books collection.
www.institutional.org
November 20, 2025 at 4:42 PM
When libraries join Google Books, Google not only scans their books, it also makes a wealth of image, OCR, & metadata available to them via the Google Return Interface (GRIN). But working with GRIN can be challenging, so we're releasing a tool to make it easier. www.institutional.org/posts/grin-t...
Join us tomorrow at 10AM EST:
tinyurl.com/y3ye6cz6
tinyurl.com/y3ye6cz6
September 18, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Join us tomorrow at 10AM EST:
tinyurl.com/y3ye6cz6
tinyurl.com/y3ye6cz6
Can a small visual language model read documents as effectively as models 27 times its size?
Next Friday, IDI will host Michele Dolfi and Peter Staar from IBM Research Zurich to discuss their work on SmolDocling, an “ultra-compact” model for diverse OCR tasks.
Next Friday, IDI will host Michele Dolfi and Peter Staar from IBM Research Zurich to discuss their work on SmolDocling, an “ultra-compact” model for diverse OCR tasks.
September 9, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Can a small visual language model read documents as effectively as models 27 times its size?
Next Friday, IDI will host Michele Dolfi and Peter Staar from IBM Research Zurich to discuss their work on SmolDocling, an “ultra-compact” model for diverse OCR tasks.
Next Friday, IDI will host Michele Dolfi and Peter Staar from IBM Research Zurich to discuss their work on SmolDocling, an “ultra-compact” model for diverse OCR tasks.
Reposted by IDI
This Monday, @institutionaldatainitiative.org will host Petr Knoth to share his experience leading CORE ("The world’s largest collection of open access research papers") as the rise of AI brings new meaning, and challenges, to stewarding knowledge repositories. Join us virtually via the link below.
June 20, 2025 at 5:43 PM
This Monday, @institutionaldatainitiative.org will host Petr Knoth to share his experience leading CORE ("The world’s largest collection of open access research papers") as the rise of AI brings new meaning, and challenges, to stewarding knowledge repositories. Join us virtually via the link below.
Reposted by IDI
Cohosted by @institutionaldatainitiative.org and The Berkman Klein Center. harvard.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Open AI Development. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.
For AI to truly benefit society, it must be built on foundations of transparency, fairness, and accountability—starting with the most foundational building block that powers it: data.
Not long ago, ...
harvard.zoom.us
June 16, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Cohosted by @institutionaldatainitiative.org and The Berkman Klein Center. harvard.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Today we released Institutional Books 1.0, a 242B token dataset from Harvard Library's collections, refined for accuracy and usability. 🧵
June 12, 2025 at 9:12 PM
Today we released Institutional Books 1.0, a 242B token dataset from Harvard Library's collections, refined for accuracy and usability. 🧵
Reposted by IDI
The @institutionaldatainitiative.org is proud to support The New Commons challenge. $100k grants along with mentorship. Let's get impactful data into the AI ecosystem.
(1/4) CALL FOR APPLICATIONS FOR DATA COMMONS FOR AI
🏆Today, The Open Data Policy Lab (a collaboration btwn The GovLab & @microsoft.com launched The New Commons Challenge—an innovation challenge to foster the creation of data commons that can support generative AI developed in the public interest.
🏆Today, The Open Data Policy Lab (a collaboration btwn The GovLab & @microsoft.com launched The New Commons Challenge—an innovation challenge to foster the creation of data commons that can support generative AI developed in the public interest.
April 14, 2025 at 3:46 PM
The @institutionaldatainitiative.org is proud to support The New Commons challenge. $100k grants along with mentorship. Let's get impactful data into the AI ecosystem.
Reposted by IDI
As the @institutionaldatainitiative.org expands its mission, we’re announcing a collaboration with @bpl.boston.gov to develop AI-driven tools capable of accelerating new digitization at libraries across the world, starting at the Boston Public Library. institutionaldatainitiative.org/posts/using-...
Using AI to Accelerate Digitization at Boston Public Librarys
Today, as part of our mission expansion, we’re announcing a collaboration with BPL to develop AI-driven tools capable of accelerating new digitization of large collections at libraries across the worl...
institutionaldatainitiative.org
March 12, 2025 at 1:23 PM
As the @institutionaldatainitiative.org expands its mission, we’re announcing a collaboration with @bpl.boston.gov to develop AI-driven tools capable of accelerating new digitization at libraries across the world, starting at the Boston Public Library. institutionaldatainitiative.org/posts/using-...
Reposted by IDI
I'm pleased to announce we're expanding our mission at the @institutionaldatainitiative.org with an open call for institutional collaborators, new digitization at Harvard Law School Library, and additional support to advance this work. institutionaldatainitiative.org/posts/open-c...
Expanding Our Mission: An Open Call for Collaborators
Today, we’re pleased to announce an open call for institutional collaborators as new support expands the research capacity of the Institutional Data Initiative.
institutionaldatainitiative.org
March 5, 2025 at 3:36 PM
I'm pleased to announce we're expanding our mission at the @institutionaldatainitiative.org with an open call for institutional collaborators, new digitization at Harvard Law School Library, and additional support to advance this work. institutionaldatainitiative.org/posts/open-c...
Hello world. institutionaldatainitiative.org/hello-world....
How Knowledge Institutions Can Build a Promethean Moment
Why we’re launching the Institutional Data Initiative to work with libraries, government agencies, and other knowledge institutions to develop data collections and best practices for artificial intell...
institutionaldatainitiative.org
December 13, 2024 at 11:40 AM
Hello world. institutionaldatainitiative.org/hello-world....