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AI-Assisted Metadata Enrichment for Government Publications

Inform

What it collects

Operational data
Anonymized data
  • A sample of 1,000 digitized government publications from Library and Archives Canada's holdings. These are institutional records with no personal information.
Run by
Library and Archives Canada (LAC)
Where
No fixed location
Kept
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Shared with
Accountable organization

What it is for

Inform

This system used AI to automatically generate descriptive metadata for a sample of 1,000 digitized Canadian government publications. It was a proof-of-concept developed with vendor Oproma for Library and Archives Canada, intended to help government employees discover and manage archival records more easily. The system has since been retired and did not process any personal information.

What it collects and what happens to it

Data taken in

Operational data
Anonymized data
  • A sample of 1,000 digitized government publications from Library and Archives Canada's holdings. These are institutional records with no personal information.

Processing

Language Models
  • The system uses a language model capability to read and generate textual metadata descriptions from the content of digitized publications. The specific model architecture is not disclosed in the register entry.

What it does

Creating (Generative AI)
Human decides
  • The system generates descriptive metadata text for government publications. Human staff review and decide whether to adopt the generated metadata.
Understanding (Semantic AI)
Human decides
  • The system reads and understands the textual content of digitized government publications in order to extract and summarize relevant metadata fields such as subject, date, and description.

Outputs

Generated content
Anonymized data
  • AI-generated metadata descriptions for government publications, including fields such as subject headings, summaries, and descriptive text to support cataloguing and discovery. No personal information is present in the outputs.

Run by

Library and Archives Canada (LAC)
  • The federal institution responsible for acquiring and preserving Canada's documentary heritage. Library and Archives Canada deployed this proof-of-concept to enrich metadata for digitized government publications.

GC AI Register — 2526-LAC-BAC-003

Built by

Oproma
  • Oproma is the vendor that built and supplied the AI system used to generate metadata descriptions for digitized government publications in this proof-of-concept.

GC AI Register — 2526-LAC-BAC-003

Kept for

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

Shared with

Available to the accountable organization
  • The generated metadata and outputs were available to Library and Archives Canada staff (GC employees) for review and use in their cataloguing workflows.

Stored

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

How to read the colours

Can it identify you?

Anonymized data
Data about people with the link to who is broken. Stripped of identifiers, blurred, aggregated, or noised so this system can’t reasonably tie a record back to an individual.
Pseudonymous data
Each person’s data is tied to a token (hash, ID, template) that lets this system recognise the same person across events, but the token itself doesn’t reveal a name. Reidentification is possible with extra information.
Identifiable data
The data either contains a direct identifier (name, address, account name, recognisable face or voice, plate number) or carries a token this system uses to look up legal identity during processing.

Who completes the loop?

Human decides
This mode suggests; a person decides what to do next. The AI is always advisory — a human is in the loop on every decision. Example: a triage tool ranks cases for a clinician who chooses which to see first.
Human executes
This mode decides; a person carries out the result. Example: an optimizer plans the day’s trash-collection routes, and drivers run them.
Autonomous
This mode decides and acts on its own. No person reviews each decision or carries out the resulting action.

Definitions from the DTPR standard. Amber is about your data, violet about who decides. The fuller the shape and the deeper the colour, the more identifying the data or the less a person is involved.

What you can do

Ask about this system

Questions go to the Helpful Places, not the vendor.

Your rights

  • Right to Be Informed of AI UseAI use was disclosed to users. As a proof-of-concept for internal government employees with no public-facing deployment and no processing of personal information, direct public notice mechanisms are not described in the register entry.
  • Right to Algorithmic TransparencyThe system's existence and purpose are disclosed through the Government of Canada's public AI Register. The system is now retired; further inquiries about how it worked may be directed to Library and Archives Canada.

Risks and safeguards

  • Societal & cultural harmAI-generated metadata descriptions for archival publications could introduce inaccurate subject headings, biased descriptions, or cultural misrepresentations, potentially affecting how government records are discovered and interpreted over time.Safeguard: The system was deployed as a proof-of-concept with human GC employees as primary users who review outputs before any adoption; the limited scope (1,000 documents) and retired status contain any systemic harm.