International GLAM Labs Community - GLAM Labs Futures 26

GLAM Labs Futures ● 25-26 June 2026 ● Scotland

The Digital Cultural Heritage Research Cluster of the Edinburgh Futures Institute at the University of Edinburgh and the International GLAM Labs Community will hold a two-day event on Thursday 25 and Friday 26 June 2026, bringing together GLAM professionals and researchers to explore what Labs have achieved over the past 10 years, what challenges there have been, how broader contexts have changed and what future models or approaches could look like for these experimental spaces.

Over the past decade, some Labs have disappeared; new ones have been established; some have pivoted their service models; others were never framed as Labs in the first place. A number of broader initiatives have also emerged around the creation of research data infrastructures and exploring the publication and reuse of the digital collections.

Meanwhile, many individual organisations lack the resources required to establish and sustain Labs, yet recognise the evolving use cases for GLAM digital and data collections.

In this new context, what is the value of Labs when faced with limited resources, a changing technological landscape and new engagement challenges? How are Labs preparing, publishing and collaborating around their data, and how can they be aligned with wider data infrastructure projects? What new Labs models are emerging, and (how) can Labs-like activities become sustainable across an organisation? Are Labs designed to last?

We invite the community to strengthen the collaboration between research and practice, and to explore the future of GLAM Labs within the digital heritage ecosystem. This in-person event will draw up a vision for GLAM Labs Futures, imagining, predicting and projecting what the future holds for the experimental reuse of digital collections and data.

We are proud to announce that our keynote for the event will be:

Professor Melissa Terras (MBE)

Our endnote speaker will be:

Dr Tim Sherratt, Historian and Hacker

Proposed Topics

These are the currently proposed topics for the event (please note that this list will be updated):

INFRASTRUCTURE(S) AND CONNECTION WITH LABS

Data research infrastructures have evolved during the last years. Some examples in Europe include the European Cloud for Heritage Open Science and the European data space for Cultural Heritage. Other examples are based on cloud services such as HuggingFace. What is the role of Labs in this new (data) context? How are Labs connected to these initiatives? In what ways are these mutually beneficial?

SUSTAINABILITY/PRECARITY/FUNDING FUTURES

Labs are often started as projects with dedicated but limited project resources or even as lab-like activities organised by enthusiastic but nevertheless individual GLAM workers. For many, dedicated environments, tools or staff are not (yet) a reality. How can Labs move away from such precarious situations? Are there examples where sustainability is in place? Or even: do Labs benefit from organisations embedding? How can communities be sustainable?

CRITICAL LANDSCAPE/IDENTITY

How do we define a ‘lab’, both now and for the future? Looking at today’s landscape, how can we shape labs and the value they bring to their users, to GLAM institutions, or to the larger world of digital commons, citizen science and the like?

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES (AI/MR)

Recent advances in technology have provided a new context in which AI and ML are playing a leading role. International initiatives such as communities, companies and projects have emerged to promote the employment of these technologies in GLAM institutions. How can AI-based research be embedded into the lab’s host organisation? How can these initiatives help the adoption of AI and ML? What are the limitations and challenges?

FUTURE FOR (RESPONSIBLE) DATA PUBLICATION/REUSE

GLAM institutions have been making digital collections available during the last decades. Labs have been exploring new and innovative uses of the digital collections in the form of data. How can Labs prepare for the new requirements in terms of data publication and reuse? What are these new requirements? How can these activities be standardised and aligned with computational access and open science? What is the impact of digital collections in society?

SPECULATIVE FUTURES

Digital collections and the data generated based on these form the main ingredients for GLAM lab activities. Apart from legal constraints, the sky could be the limit when putting these collections to action. How do we imagine the future in terms of creative reuse? Who gets involved? How can we keep inviting in the most out of the box ideas and experimentation?

FUTURE MODELS/PRACTICAL FUTURES

Labs have been present for a few years now. They have proved that they can be used as a source and as use cases for research. New requirements and needs based on technological advances and digital literacy, and staff skills are changing and evolving the traditional concept of lab. How will labs interact with the organisation and users in the future? How will labs be aligned with the research community?

MAKERSPACE-LAB RELATIONSHIP | COLLABORATIVE FUTURES

Working with each other and learning from each other is essential for creativity. This session explores potential collaborations between Makerspaces and GLAM Labs, using the Edinburgh Makerspace as a starting point. What are the shared organisational models? What are the opportunities for future collaborations?

OPEN SCIENCE, CITIZEN SCIENCE & DIGITAL COMMONS

Open Science makes research transparent and accessible, Citizen Science involves the public in research, and the Digital Commons provides a shared space for open knowledge – all three share the goal of maximising public access and collaborative engagement with data and knowledge. What are the practical applications of Open Science and Citizen Science in the context of shared digital resources? What are the best practices for contributing to the Digital Commons? How do participatory approaches drive innovation, equitable and democratic access?

LEARNING FROM FAILURE: WHEN LABS GO WRONG

Working within a GLAM Lab means embracing experimentation, and with experiments come failures, but these essential failures are driving GLAM Labs forward. This session will invite contributors to share stories of projects that were technically sound, strategically brilliant, but ultimately went wrong. It is a safe space dedicated to sharing lessons learned when expectations didn't meet reality.

FROM CONCEPT TO CODE: TOOLS IN GLAM LABS

GLAM labs rely heavily on open-source and proprietary tools to make collections computationally accessible. Adoption is typically driven by the need to match tools to the available data (e.g., adapting image processing libraries for highly digitized art, or text mining tools for historical newspapers). The session would focus on tools adaptation (how existing tools are adapted and customised), user training (workshops, hackathons, online tutorials), and new tools models (how labs work on proof-of-concepts, prototypes, etc.).

LIGHTNING PROVOCATIONS: CHALLENGING THE LABS

This lightning talk session focuses on deliberately provocative, problematic statements or challenging visions for the future of GLAM Labs. The goal is to surface topics (some of which may get identified in the “failures” session) and stimulate critical discussion on organisational, structural and ethical problems.

Booking Form

Booking will be available soon for this event.

Location for event

The event will take place in the Edinburgh Futures Institute.

Biographies of Speakers

Biographies of Speakers will appear soon.

Attendees

List of attendees.

Programme

A detailed programme will appear in this section:

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