AI, Cultural Heritage, and the Future of Libraries
Dr Andreas Vlachidis, Associate Professor at University College London’s Department of Information Studies, was among the distinguished participants at the Thessaloniki Winter School, held between 26–30 January 2026 in Thessaloniki, Greece. The event, organised by the MetaDATA LAB of the International Hellenic University under the framework of the TELL (Trans-European Learning Libraries) project, which is funded by the Erasmus+ programme, that brought together approximately 30 cultural heritage professionals from across Europe.
Dr Vlachidis took part in the School’s flagship Round Table Panel on ethical AI, digital citizenship, and library responses to global and local challenges, joining an impressive panel of European experts. Discussions with Professor Emmanouel Garoufallou, Director of MetaDATA LAB, and Maria-Nefeli Chatziioannidou, Member of the Hellenic Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, centred on the transformative role of AI technologies in the cultural heritage sector and the responsibilities that come with their adoption.
A highlight of Dr Vlachidis’s participation was the presentation of the latest research findings from the MeDoraH project, an AHRC-DFG funded UK-Germany collaboration. The presentation showcased cutting-edge work on employing Large Language Models (LLMs) in the process of ontology development, with a particular focus on modelling the evolution of the Digital Humanities field through the computational analysis of collective memory accounts. The research illustrates the exciting potential of AI-driven methods to capture and formalise how scholarly communities understand and narrate their own intellectual history.
The Thessaloniki Winter School reaffirmed the vital role of libraries and information professionals as dynamic hubs of innovation and democratic values and Dr Vlachidis’s contributions brought a timely and forward-looking perspective to those conversations.