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AI agent for historians

Archive Research Trip Planning Agent

An archive visit that covers the key materials

PlanningScience and research
See how it worksGet access
Archive Research Trip Planning Agent: what goes in, what the agent does and what you get

What it does

Archive time is short and travel is costly, so arriving to find a box off-site or restricted wastes the trip. This agent takes your research questions and searches archive catalogs and finding aids for relevant collections. For each item it checks whether it is digitized, held off-site, restricted, or needs advance booking. It ranks items by how well they match your questions. It drafts request lists and reading room bookings in each archive's format and builds a day-by-day plan with box counts that fit the reading room's limits. After the visit it checks which priority items you actually saw and lists gaps for a follow-up visit or remote copies. You approve all requests and bookings before they go. Edge case: a collection with access restrictions gets a draft permission request.

How it works

Follow the arrows from top to bottom. The orange dashed arrow is the loop: when a check fails, the agent goes back and tries again.

Start and resultWhat it doesA check on its own workWaits for your OKGoes back and retries
ApprovedYes, continueNo 1 STARTS WHEN Trip planned 2 USES A TOOL Search catalogs and finding aids 3 DOES Check digitization, location and restrictions 4 DOES Build request list and daily plan 5 YOU APPROVE Historian approves requests and bookings 6 USES A TOOL Record items seen after the visit 7 CHECKS THE RESULT Were all priority items seen? If not: list gaps for a follow-up visit or remotecopies. Back to step 4. 8 RESULT Trip report
Read the steps as a list
  1. Trip planned
  2. Search catalogs and finding aids
  3. Check digitization, location and restrictions
  4. Build request list and daily plan
  5. Historian approves requests and bookingsThe agent waits here for your OK.
  6. Record items seen after the visit
  7. Were all priority items seen?If not: list gaps for a follow-up visit or remote copies. Back to step 4.
  8. Trip report

How it decides

It ranks items by relevance and checks access, location and booking needs.

  • Prefer digitized copies when available
  • Respect reading room limits
  • Draft permission requests

Make it yours

Every agent is a starting point. You choose these settings for your own situation.

  • Box limits per day
  • Archives
  • Request format
  • Priority rules

What keeps you in control

It always asks you first

  • Sending requests and bookings

Hard limits

  • Never sends requests without approval

It stops when

  • Done: trip report saved
  • Stop: archive closed

Set it up

We guide you through the set-up, step by step

Members get the full set-up guide for this agent. No technical skills needed: you copy, paste and upload.

10 minto set it up in your AI
5 AIsChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini, Grok
  • One set of instructions to paste into your AI, with the clicks for ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Gemini and Grok
  • The agent then walks you through connecting your own data, one source at a time
  • A downloadable copy with the flow chart, the rules and the full guide
Get access to this agent

An example run

What happensFor a five-day trip to a state archive in May, the agent found 31 relevant boxes. Six were digitized, so it dropped them. The historian approved requests for 25 boxes and a reading room booking of 5 boxes per day. After the visit, the check showed two priority boxes of 1880s court records unseen because one was at conservation. The agent went back, found a scan request option, and the historian approved the order.

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