Wayne State joins fellow R1 universities in national effort to guide AI use in cultural collections

Paul Bracke (left), dean of the Wayne State University Library System and School of Information Sciences, and Louis Jones of the Walter P. Reuther Library stand beside an original "I AM A MAN" sign from the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike.

DETROIT - Researchers from around the world travel to Midtown to access archival collections housed at Wayne State University's Walter P. Reuther Library, home to the largest labor archives in North America and some of the country's most significant collections tied to labor history, civil rights and Detroit's cultural legacy.

"The labor movement is hugely important, not only in U.S. history but in world history," said Paul Bracke, dean of the Wayne State University Library System and School of Information Sciences. "We are a go-to place globally for labor history."

Archival boxes and records line the shelves inside the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University, home to one of the nation's largest collections documenting labor movements, civil rights and urban affairs.

That global importance is one reason Wayne State has signed onto a national "Statement of Shared Practice" that outlines how libraries should approach requests from artificial intelligence (AI) developers seeking access to rare and unique archival materials.

Originally developed through conversations led by the University of Virginia (UVA) Library, the voluntary agreement establishes a shared framework for evaluating AI training requests involving archival, manuscript and special collections.

Wayne State is among the initial signatories, joining fellow R1 research institutions Duke University, Florida State University, Northwestern University, Oklahoma State University, Rice University, Tulane University, University of Florida, University of Rochester, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Washington University in St. Louis.

Bracke said the conversation around AI is especially important for libraries because of the unique role they play in preserving historical records.

"One thing that distinguishes us from other parts of the university is the unique content that we have and how we think about our relationship to AI," he said.

The UVA statement comes as AI developers increasingly seek new sources of material to train large language models, or LLMs, the systems that power tools such as ChatGPT and Claude.

A researcher studies archival materials in the reading room at Wayne State University's Walter P. Reuther Library. Scholars from around the world visit the Midtown Detroit campus to access its labor, civil rights and urban affairs collections.

"I think that the people who make models are running out of free content to train their models on," Bracke said. "The unique, special collections and archives in research libraries is one untapped source of unique and important training material."

For Wayne State, those special collections include records tied to labor unions, urban affairs, civil rights movements, the Heidelberg Project, James and Grace Lee Boggs, and Rosa Parks.

The Wayne State University Library System also includes the David Adamany Undergraduate Library, Purdy/Kresge Library and the Arthur Neef Law Library.

"What we collect are things that are really rooted in community," Bracke said. "Our urban affairs collections are about Detroit and they're about the people of Detroit."

He said the university has a responsibility to protect not only the materials themselves but also the communities connected to them.

"We need to be good partners with our community before signing those things over to LLMs," Bracke said.

The UVA statement does not prohibit libraries from working with AI companies. Instead, it establishes a framework meant to preserve the connection between materials and their origins, maintain institutional oversight, and encourage collaboration as libraries navigate rapidly evolving technology. Bracke said the effort is not about restricting access to archival materials, but making sure collections are represented responsibly within AI systems.

"This is not about reducing access in any way," he said. "What we want is for there to be thoughtfulness about how those collections are represented in the AI models."

A 1937 mural by artists Walter Speck and Barbara Wilson hangs inside the reading room at Wayne State University's Walter P. Reuther Library. Originally commissioned for a United Auto Workers union hall, the artwork depicts labor and industrial life in Detroit.

That concern is especially important when working with archival materials, where meaning is often shaped by the broader context surrounding a document or collection.

Katrina Rouan, director of the Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, said preserving that context is central to the library's mission.

"For decades, the Reuther Library has made a commitment to collect, preserve and make these distinctive collections accessible," she said. "This means taking steps to ensure these materials are not misrepresented or taken out of context by AI models."

Although Wayne State has not yet received requests from AI developers involving its collections, Bracke said the university wanted to proactively join discussions already taking place among peer institutions because of the significance of the materials housed at the university.

"We thought it was important to be in conversation about this with our peer institutions," he said.

Bracke said those conversations carry added weight because Wayne State's archival holdings are recognized well beyond Detroit, particularly within labor history.

"When it comes to our archival collections, what we have is really, really important," he said. "We have collections that could be a centerpiece of archival collections anywhere nationwide or globally."