Unlocking Hidden Histories with AI: Digitizing the Journalistic Recordings of Burning Spear Media

In 2023, the George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida partnered with Burning Spear Media, LLC, (BSM) to preserve and provide access to a collection of recordings related to the Uhuru Movement and the African People’s Socialist Party. Recorded by BSM reporters and volunteers, these materials chronicle the survival, continuity, and growth of the movement for Black Power and African Internationalism from 1971 to 1999. This paper will discuss the development of this partnership, how AI was used to enhance our processes to make these recordings available sooner, and how we continue to work with members of BSM to mediate the AI-generated data and add descriptive metadata to improve discoverability. Keywords: Digitization, Artificial Intelligence, Community, Digital preservation, News media