Northern Illinois University

Northern Illinois University, in partnership with Old Dominion University and the University of North Texas, will research whether library-archived university records, made accessible through specialized AI agents, can improve the accuracy and trustworthiness of student academic advising support. This research project is based on a specialized artificial intelligence architecture grounded in library curated university archives. Working with librarians, academic advisors, and artificial intelligence researchers across three institutions, the project will develop an open-source toolkit that uses specialized artificial intelligence agents to provide library-led student advising grounded in archived university records; evaluate its effectiveness through a controlled study across three campuses; and curate a “University DNA” archive of governance and policy records to support long term access and reuse.