We’re pleased to announce the release of the October 2025 issue of Multimedia & Technology Reviews.
This issue explores the evolving role of AI tools in art librarianship and art history, highlighting innovative applications and critical perspectives from professionals in the field. From AI-driven authentication of artworks and automated transcription of historical documents to intelligent research assistants and citation analysis tools, our reviewers delve into the transformative potential of AI in visual culture and information practices.
We invite you to explore the current reviews by following the DOI links provided and join the conversation on how technology continues to shape the future of art and cultural heritage.
You can also browse the full archive of our reviews on the ARLIS/NA Commons CORE Repository.
Art Recognition
Reviewed by: Jack Mulvaney
Art Recognition is an AI driven solution for appraising the authenticity of artworks to an industry standard. Responding to the proliferation of forged assets, art experts have become adept with techniques that assess an artwork from a position of proximity, from x-ray analysis to the ability of a trained human eye to determine inconsistency. Art Recognition’s website offers consistent artwork appraisal and analysis as a guarantee, via the convenience of only needing to submit a digital image, with certifiable results delivered within as little as 7 days.
See full review at: https://doi.org/10.17613/xdqp1-wsg49
EBSCO’s AI Insights and Natural Language Search (NLS)
Reviewed by: Jung Soo Bae
As academic research continues to evolve in the age of artificial intelligence, new tools are emerging to support more efficient and intuitive information discovery. ‘AI Insights‘ and ‘Natural Language Search (NLS)‘ are two AI-enhanced features introduced on EBSCO’s platforms to streamline the research process and improve the overall user experience. Both are configurable, add-on features available to subscribers of EBSCO Discovery Service and EBSCOhost databases. This review evaluates the effectiveness of these tools in real-world research contexts, focusing on their accuracy, usability, and transparency. To provide practical insights, test searches were conducted in EBSCOhost subscription databases such as Art & Architecture Source, using sample research questions drawn from actual reference interactions.
See full review at: https://doi.org/10.17613/67bn1-hg972
JSTOR AI Research Tool
Reviewed by: Roberto Vargas
First released in August of 2023, Ithaka’s AI Research Tool on the JSTOR platform is the vendor’s first implementation of a Large Language Models (LLM) on its collections. As of the writing of this review, the tool works with articles, book chapters, and research reports. This review of the tool will consider its functionality, the way it delivers content, its purpose, and the documentation Ithaka provides to help people utilize this tool.
See full review at: https://doi.org/10.17613/qgvd1-6at58
OpenAI Whisper: Automatic Speech Recognition
Reviewed by: Hayley Curtis
OpenAI’s Whisper is a free, open-source speech recognition model that automatically generates captions and transcripts for audio and video files. Whisper is publicly available to download and use from GitHub, so once downloaded, it can be run locally with command line prompts or in scripting languages like Python. Whisper provides a range of different processing models with varying levels of speed, accuracy, and required processing power from hardware.
See full review at: https://doi.org/10.17613/kb2fq-wew88
ProQuest Research Assistant
Reviewed by: Jenna Rinalducci
The ProQuest Research Assistant offers a suite of tools that attempt to streamline the research process. These tools are intended to help with search strategy and document analysis. ProQuest launched a beta version in ProQuest One Literature in 2024 and is now available in ProQuest Central as of early 2025.
See full review at: https://doi.org/10.17613/x18cz-fev62
Scite
Reviewed by: Kimberlie Sullivan
Scite is a citation analysis and discovery tool that seeks to improve the transparency, reliability, and interpretability of research, developing a system that not only evaluates the quantity but also synthesizes the impact of citations, setting it apart from legacy citation databases such as Scopus and Web of Science. The platform’s distinguishing feature is its “Smart Citations” function, which adds context to scholarly references. Instead of simply indicating that an article has been cited, Scite categorizes the citation as supporting, mentioning, or contrasting. The system draws on the surrounding text of each citation—usually the preceding, current, and following sentences—to show whether a work is affirmed, critiqued, or cited neutrally. This added layer of context helps users quickly assess an article’s role within the scholarly conversation, making it easier to identify influential studies, trace debates, and evaluate the credibility of cited claims.
See full review at: https://doi.org/10.17613/nqakk-e4r26
The Living Museum
Reviewed by: Liang-Chun Wu
The Living Museum is an experimental user interface designed to engage museum visitors and people at home with a selection of 1.2 million artifacts from the British Museum’s digital collections in an interactive format. This independent project is not affiliated with the British Museum. Its infinite canvas interface centers on two features: a natural language conversational chatbot and a curating function. By reorganizing existing information into a conversational format, the interface offers an accessible and engaging entry point into the collections, encouraging audiences to explore objects in a more dynamic and proactive way. Positioned as an experimental initiative, it focuses on broad public engagement rather than providing original scholarly arguments or aiming for formal academic recognition.
See full review at: https://doi.org/10.17613/kg9ah-k3835
Transkribus
Reviewed by: Hannah L. Jacobs
Transkribus is a web-based platform supporting transcription of historical documents for researchers, students, and communities. The platform is part of a suite of tools developed by read-coop to support the digitization workflow from scanning through to transcription and sharing. Trankribus’ automated transcription, with manual editing abilities, handles both handwritten and printed documents through processes known as handwritten text recognition (HTR) and optical character recognition (OCR). To support a range of mostly Western languages, scripts, and penmanship styles, Trankribus offers free and paid models and enables its users to train their own custom models. This last feature sets it apart from other historically-oriented HTR and OCR tools. An API is available for developers wanting to integrate Transkribus into their own environments.
See full review at: https://doi.org/10.17613/241k0-m4g28