Library Technology Guides

Yale Library is testing an AI-powered connection for deeper searching of library resources. Yale Library is testing an AI integration that could transform how students and researchers search for and surface books and other resources in the library's vast catalog. The integration uses the model context protocol, a universal open standard for connecting AI helpers like Chat GPT or Claude to any data source—including, in this case, the highly curated bibliographic data of the library's catalog. [Full Announcement].

With employee feedback, Yale Library builds new programs for staff development and engagement. At Yale Library, building a workplace rooted in respect, learning, and growth is not just an aspiration, it's a collective commitment. In January 2025, in response to findings from the 2023 Yale Library Staff Climate Survey and the 2024 Yale Employee Engagement Survey, the library launched a robust set of strategies titled “Moving from Words to Action: Yale Library Staff Development and Engagement Action Plan.” [Full Announcement].

Yale announces $150 million to support leadership in AI. Yale will commit more than $150 million over the next five years to support faculty, students, and staff as they engage with artificial intelligence. The investment will help the community develop, use, and evaluate AI and apply it to deliver breakthrough research at an unprecedented speed and scale, Yale Provost Scott Strobel wrote in a message to the Yale community. It will support key areas, including compute infrastructure, community access to secure generative AI tools, targeted faculty hires, seed grants, and opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration. [Full Announcement].

Yale launches LUX, a powerful new search tool for cross-collection exploration. LUX: Collection Discovery—a new cross-collection search tool—provides users worldwide with online access to more than 17 million items within Yale University's museums, libraries, and archives. Using LUX's single, targeted search, users can, for the first time, trace related artistic, cultural, and scientific objects across the university's many collections. Yale's museums, libraries, and archives contain vast troves of cultural and scientific heritage that fire curiosity and fuel research worldwide. [Full Announcement].

Yale Library restructuring will unify special collections, increase access for researchers and visitors. Yale University Library is restructuring its special collections to support a unified collection strategy and service model. The changes give the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, already Yale Library's largest and best-known repository, an expanded leadership role for special collections across the university library system. [Full Announcement].

Digital Images of Yale's Vast Cultural Collections Now Available for Free. Scholars, artists and other individuals around the world will enjoy free access to online images of millions of objects housed in Yale's museums, archives, and libraries thanks to a new "Open Access" policy that the University announced today. Yale is the first Ivy League university to make its collections accessible in this fashion, and already more than 250,000 images are available through a newly developed collective catalog. The goal of the new policy is to make high quality digital images of Yale's vast cultural heritage collections in the public domain openly and freely available. [Full Announcement].