First Workshop on Building Innovative Research Systems for Digital Libraries (BIRDS 2025)

TL;DR

First, it introduces BIRDS as an interdisciplinary, full-day workshop at TPDL 2025 to bridge digital library practitioners/GLAM with computational researchers amid information flood and the rise of LLMs. The paper argues that while large language models show promise, practical access paths must be designed that respect library constraints, user needs, and data privacy. The proposed format combines a keynote, scientific speed-dating, a panel, and guided breakout sessions to foster collaboration and rapid idea exchange, with a SIGIR Forum report as an outcome and continuation at future conferences. The work aims to catalyze cross-domain collaboration and produce concrete, next-generation digital library access strategies grounded in real-world contexts.

Abstract

We propose the first workshop on Building Innovative Research Systems for Digital Libraries (BIRDS) to take place at TPDL 2025 as a full-day workshop. BIRDS addresses practitioners working in digital libraries and GLAMs as well as researchers from computational domains such as data science, information retrieval, natural language processing, and data modelling. Our interdisciplinary workshop focuses on connecting members of both worlds. One of today's biggest challenges is the increasing information flood. Large language models like ChatGPT seem to offer good performance for answering questions on the web. So, shall we just build upon that idea and use chatbots in digital libraries? Or do we need to design and develop specialized and effective access paths? Answering these questions requires to connect different communities, practitioners from real digital libraries and researchers in the area of computer science. In brief, our workshop's goal is thus to support researchers and practitioners to build the next generation of innovative and effective digital library systems.