There's a common misconception that assistive technologies only benefit a few – namely those with special access needs. However, innovations like voice assistants, text-to-speech and captions are things most of us use everyday, and at some point in our lives we or someone we know will rely on assistive technologies.

Dr Scott Hollier, CEO & co-founder of the Centre For Accessibility Australia, joins us to discuss digital access tools and creative approaches that make digital spaces easier to navigate. He shares how early design choices, strong accessibility standards and lived experience can shape richer online projects, including the Library’s award-winning Mouthful of Dustweb experience.

The conversation looks at emerging guidelines, the pros and cons of AI-driven accessible tech and the vital role libraries play in protecting information integrity while opening access to more people.

There's a common misconception that assistive technologies only benefit a few &ndash; namely those with special access needs. However, innovations like voice assistants, text-to-speech and captions are things most of us use everyday, and at some point in our lives we or someone we know will rely on assistive technologies.
Dr Scott Hollier, CEO &amp; co-founder of the <a href="https://www.accessibility.org.au/">Centre For Accessibility Australia</a>, joins us to discuss digital access tools and creative approaches that make digital spaces easier to navigate. He shares how early design choices, strong accessibility standards and lived experience can shape richer online projects, including the Library&rsquo;s award-winning <a href="https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/mouthful-of-dust/">Mouthful of Dust</a> web experience.
The conversation looks at emerging guidelines, the pros and cons of AI-driven accessible tech and the vital role libraries play in protecting information integrity while opening access to more people.

Explore emerging tech, digital experimentation and all things library-futures.

SLV LAB is State Library Victoria's prototyping and innovation lab. We experiment with technology to open access to collections, data and spaces. In our Conversations series, we discuss emerging technology, digital experimentation and library futures with artists, technologists and workers in the cultural sector.

Explore emerging tech, digital experimentation and all things library-futures.
SLV LAB is State Library Victoria's prototyping and innovation lab. We experiment with technology to open access to collections, data and spaces.&nbsp;In our Conversations series, we discuss emerging technology, digital experimentation and library futures with artists, technologists and workers in the cultural sector.

SLV LAB is State Library Victoria's prototyping and innovation lab. In our Conversations series, we discuss emerging technology, digital experimentation and library futures with artists, technologists and workers in the cultural sector.

SLV LAB Conversations

There's a common misconception that assistive technologies only benefit a few – namely those with special access needs. However, innovations like voice assistants, text-to-speech and captions are things most of us use everyday, and at some point in our lives we or someone we know will rely on assistive technologies. The conversation looks at emerging guidelines, the pros and cons of AI-driven accessible tech and the vital role libraries play in protecting information integrity while opening access to more people.

Creating a more accessible online world – Scott Hollier

“Artificial Intelligence is here. It’s not going to go away. We can hate it, we can refuse it, we can have doubts. But it’s here – and maybe we can use it for our own purposes and our own workflows in our institutions.” Dr Ines Vodopivec is convinced that AI (Artificial Intelligence) isn’t a novelty bolted onto library systems; it’s already reshaping users’ expectations and our definitions of data, and the workflows that connect the two.

Ines began her career in a Franciscan monastery in Slovenia, cataloguing 16th Century manuscripts, and has since then moved between librarianship, restoration and digitisation. Today, she is a digital‑heritage leader and Secretary General of AI4LAM whose career spans deputy directorship at Slovenia’s National and University Library, roles with UNESCO’s Memory of the World and the Europeana Network Association board.

In early February 2026, on a whirlwind tour of GLAM institutions in the Asia-Pacific region, she stopped by State Library Victoria to deliver a presentation that explored practical case studies for AI implementation in libraries across Europe and the US, including the National Library of Norway, Standford University Libraries and Bibliothèque National de France.

Alongside the promise of AI, she weighs ethics, access and the realities of staff skills, arguing for AI literacy and cross‑sector collaboration so libraries can remain trusted, user‑centred infrastructures.

&ldquo;Artificial Intelligence is here. It&rsquo;s not going to go away. We can hate it, we can refuse it, we can have doubts. But it&rsquo;s here &ndash; and maybe we can use it for our own purposes and our own workflows in our institutions.&rdquo;&nbsp;Dr Ines Vodopivec is convinced that AI (Artificial Intelligence) isn&rsquo;t a novelty bolted onto library systems; it&rsquo;s already reshaping users&rsquo; expectations and our definitions of data, and the workflows that connect the two.
Ines began her career in a Franciscan monastery in Slovenia, cataloguing 16th Century manuscripts, and has since then moved between librarianship, restoration and digitisation. Today, she is a digital‑heritage leader and Secretary General of <a href="https://sites.google.com/view/ai4lam">AI4LAM</a> whose career spans deputy directorship at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_and_University_Library_of_Slovenia">Slovenia&rsquo;s National and University Library</a>, roles with <a href="https://en.unesco.org/programme/mow">UNESCO&rsquo;s Memory of the World</a> and the <a href="https://pro.europeana.eu/europeana-network-association">Europeana Network Association</a> board.
In early February 2026, on a whirlwind tour of GLAM institutions in the Asia-Pacific region, she stopped by State Library Victoria to deliver a presentation that explored practical case studies for AI implementation in libraries across Europe and the US, including the National Library of Norway, Standford University Libraries and Biblioth&egrave;que National de France.
Alongside the promise of AI, she weighs ethics, access and the realities of staff skills, arguing for AI literacy and cross‑sector collaboration so libraries can remain trusted, user‑centred infrastructures.

AI tools are rapidly changing how we use libraries. Digital heritage leader Ines Vodopivec explains how we can stay ahead of the game, using case studies from Europe and the US.

How AI can help libraries – Ines Vodopivec

From the dial‑up days of 1993 to today’s data‑rich cultural landscape, historian and technologist Tim Sherratt has been rewiring how we see public collections. In this SLV Lab Conversation with State Library Victoria's Chief Digital Officer Paula Bray, Tim retraces a 30-year career so far shaped by dashboards and digitisation, political interventions and playful data experiments – a body of generous, open practice that treats interfaces, notebooks and APIs as scholarship in their own right. Along the way, he champions sector collaboration and the courage to experiment, and sharing his code and thought process so others can build on them.

About Tim Sherratt:
Calling Tim Sherratt a historian undersells him slightly. Calling him a hacker does the same. Over the past thirty years, historian and hacker Tim Sherratt has moved between research, cultural institutions and code, building tools that sit in the space between official infrastructure and individual curiosity. In 1993, in the early days of the web, he worked on the Australian Science Archives Project based at the University of Melbourne, which led to the development of Australia’s first archives website. This sparked his interest in GLAM collections and how the affordances of the then fledgling web could allow people to access history and communicate about it in different ways.

In 2007, while at the National Archives of Australia, Tim realised that applying computational methods to collections could open new avenues for analysis and exploration – an insight that became a major turning point in his career. Since then, his projects have ranged from dashboards (PROV Data, NAA Digitisation) and searchable digitised journals, to political interventions (The Real Face of White Australia, Historic Hansard) and playful data experiments (Operation Random Words, redacted). Most recently, he was Associate Professor of Digital Heritage at the University of Canberra, and before that, Manager of National Library of Australia’s online research portal Trove.

At the centre of Tim’s practice nowadays is the GLAM Workbench, a sprawling, carefully documented collection of scripts, notebooks and examples designed to help people work with data from galleries, libraries, archives and museums. The Workbench reflects his philosophy: that institutions cannot do everything themselves, and that access depends on a commitment to openness.

From the dial‑up days of 1993 to today&rsquo;s data‑rich cultural landscape, historian and technologist <a href="https://lab.slv.vic.gov.au/team/tim-sherratt">Tim Sherratt</a> has been rewiring how we see public collections. In this SLV Lab Conversation with State Library Victoria's Chief Digital Officer <a href="https://lab.slv.vic.gov.au/team/paula-bray">Paula Bray</a>, Tim retraces a 30-year career so far shaped by dashboards and digitisation, political interventions and playful data experiments &ndash; a body of generous, open practice that treats interfaces, notebooks and APIs as scholarship in their own right. Along the way, he champions sector collaboration and the courage to experiment, and sharing his code and thought process so others can build on them.
About Tim Sherratt: Calling Tim Sherratt a historian undersells him slightly. Calling him a hacker does the same. Over the past thirty years, historian and hacker Tim Sherratt has moved between research, cultural institutions and code, building tools that sit in the space between official infrastructure and individual curiosity. In 1993, in the early days of the web, he worked on the <a href="https://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/">Australian Science Archives Project</a> based at the University of Melbourne, which led to the development of Australia&rsquo;s first archives website. This sparked his interest in GLAM collections and how the affordances of the then fledgling web could allow people to access history and communicate about it in different ways.
In 2007, while at the <a href="https://www.naa.gov.au/">National Archives of Australia</a>, Tim realised that applying computational methods to collections could open new avenues for analysis and exploration &ndash; an insight that became a major turning point in his career. Since then, his projects have ranged from dashboards (<a href="https://wragge.github.io/prov-dashboard/">PROV Data</a>, <a href="https://wragge.github.io/naa-recently-digitised/">NAA Digitisation</a>) and <a href="https://wraggelabs.com/trove-titles/">searchable digitised journals</a>, to political interventions (<a href="https://www.realfaceofwhiteaustralia.net/faces/?rsort=3">The Real Face of White Australia</a>, <a href="https://historichansard.net/">Historic Hansard</a>) and playful data experiments (<a href="https://wraggelabs.com/operation/">Operation Random Words</a>, <a href="https://wraggelabs.com/owebrowse/redactions/">redacted</a>). Most recently, he was Associate Professor of Digital Heritage at the University of Canberra, and before that, Manager of National Library of Australia&rsquo;s online research portal Trove.
At the centre of Tim&rsquo;s practice nowadays is the <a href="https://glam-workbench.net/">GLAM Workbench</a>, a sprawling, carefully documented collection of scripts, notebooks and examples designed to help people work with data from galleries, libraries, archives and museums. The Workbench reflects his philosophy: that institutions cannot do everything themselves, and that access depends on a commitment to openness.

From the dial‑up days of 1993 to today’s data‑rich cultural landscape, historian and technologist Tim Sherratt has been rewiring how we see public collections. In this SLV Lab Conversation with State Library Victoria's Chief Digital Officer Paula Bray, Tim retraces a 30-year career so far shaped by dashboards and digitisation, political interventions and playful data experiments – a body of generous, open practice that treats interfaces, notebooks and APIs as scholarship in their own right. Along the way, he champions sector collaboration and the courage to experiment, and sharing his code and thought process so others can build on them.

Three decades as a hacker and historian – Tim Sherratt

We caught up with Dr Fiannuala (Finn) Morgan to talk about her fascinating project, Historic Fires Near Me – an experimental visualisation of nineteenth century bushfire reporting which forms part of her ongoing research reconstructing Australian bushfire records from 1850 to 1900. The idea was sparked by the devastation of the Black Summer bushfires in 2019–20 and the troubling media narratives that downplay the growing severity of bushfires in Australia. Finn wanted to dig deeper into the historical record to see what the past could tell us.

As a librarian by trade with a passion for literature, Finn turned to Trove’s enormous archive of newspapers and journals. To extract and synthesise this data, she taught herself to code, using a mix of techniques – from simple searches to more advanced methods like Named Entity Recognition. The result is a browser-based tool that reveals where fires occurred and how often, across the colonies, over a fifty-year span.

In this conversation with SLV LAB’s Innovation Lead, Sotirios Alpanis, Finn shares what inspired her research and how anyone can learn to wrangle messy cultural data as she did. She also spoke about the distinct fire histories of different Australian colonies and the ways fire was used as a tool of colonisation in Victoria.

We caught up with Dr Fiannuala (Finn) Morgan to talk about her fascinating project, <a dir="ltr">Historic Fires Near Me</a> &ndash; an experimental visualisation of nineteenth century bushfire reporting&nbsp;which forms part of her&nbsp;<a dir="ltr">ongoing research</a>&nbsp;reconstructing Australian bushfire records from 1850 to 1900. The idea was sparked by the devastation of the <a dir="ltr">Black Summer bushfires</a> in 2019&ndash;20 and the troubling media narratives that downplay the growing severity of bushfires in Australia. Finn wanted to dig deeper into the historical record to see what the past could tell us.
As a librarian by trade with a passion for literature, Finn turned to Trove&rsquo;s enormous archive of newspapers and journals. To extract and synthesise this data, she taught herself to code, using a mix of techniques &ndash; from simple searches to more advanced methods like Named Entity Recognition. The result is a browser-based tool that reveals where fires occurred and how often, across the colonies, over a fifty-year span.
In this conversation with SLV LAB&rsquo;s Innovation Lead, Sotirios Alpanis, Finn shares what inspired her research and how anyone can learn to wrangle messy cultural data as she did. She also spoke about the distinct fire histories of different Australian colonies and the ways fire was used as a tool of colonisation in Victoria.

We caught up with Dr Fiannuala (Finn) Morgan to talk about her fascinating project, Historic Fires Near Me – an experimental visualisation of nineteenth century bushfire reporting which forms part of her ongoing research reconstructing Australian bushfire records from 1850 to 1900. The idea was sparked by the devastation of the Black Summer bushfires in 2019–20 and the troubling media narratives that downplay the growing severity of bushfires in Australia. Finn wanted to dig deeper into the historical record to see what the past could tell us.

Creating a more accessible online world – Scott Hollier

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