Florence Clavaud

Social scientists working with materials requiring digitization can only study what machines can read. In practice, that means printed Latin-script documents from well-funded archives. In a new working paper, I show that Vision Language Models used zero-shot outperform every existing OCR system across every script evaluated, and I propose a pipeline for deploying them on new collections. I apply it to six archival collections spanning 1.8 million pages across six countries for under $1,900.

Portrait d’Olivier Guyotjeannin, professeur émérite d’Archivistique, diplomatique et histoire des institutions de l’époque médiévale à l’École des chartes chartes.psl.eu/gazette-charti…

🇮🇹 The speech that all of Italy heard. And that the world must hear. In a country that will host the Olympic Games, Italian Senator and Vice President of the Human Rights Commission Filippo Sensi took the floor and said what should have been said out loud long ago. He called it a disgrace that the International Olympic Committee disqualified Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych. Not for doping. Not for violating fair play. But for… memory. For a helmet bearing the faces of Ukrainian athletes — his friends, colleagues, champions — killed by Russia. The IOC stated that the helmet “did not comply with regulations.” And then Sensi asked a question that brought silence to the chamber: Does aggressive war comply with regulations? Is there a separate technical protocol for it? The correct angle of a missile strike? The permissible size of a crater? An athlete prepares for the Olympics for years. A Ukrainian athlete trains between air raid sirens, in shelters, under news of the dead. He overcomes fear, exhaustion, and loss. And he steps to the start line not only for a medal — but for the right to exist. And he is suspended… for remembering. Because memory is the most dangerous substance. It is hard to add to a prohibited list. But apparently, someone would very much like to. The senator named names. Just a few among more than 650 Ukrainian athletes killed by Russia: ▪️ Yevhenii Malyshev, 19, biathlete — killed in Kharkiv. ▪️ Mariia Lebid, 15 — missile strike in Dnipro. ▪️ Dmytro Sharpar, 25, figure skater — killed in Bakhmut. ▪️ Volodymyr Androsiuk, 22, track and field athlete — also Bakhmut. ▪️ Daria Kurdel, 20 — missile strike in Kharkiv. ▪️ Alina Perehutova, 14 — standing in line for water with her mother in Mariupol. ▪️ Maksym Halinichev, 22, boxer — killed defending Luhansk region. ▪️ Viktoriia Ivashko, 9, judoka — missile strike in Kyiv. ▪️ Kateryna Diachenko, 11, gymnast — airstrike on Mariupol. ▪️ Karina Bakur, 17, world kickboxing champion — shielded her father with her body. These were the faces Heraskevych wanted to carry with him to the start line. So that they would “compete” alongside him. So that their dream would not die with them. And for that, he was punished. Because it turns out that the faces of murdered athletes violate regulations. But their absence on the track does not. In his speech, Sensi said the most important thing: The Olympic Committee did not lose an athlete. It lost its most valuable medal — its conscience. Sport without memory is just a show. Sport without humanity is just decoration. Sport that fears truth is not about peace. The Olympic movement was born from the ideals of honor, dignity, and unity. Yet today Ukrainian athletes must prove not only their strength — but their right to remember their fallen. And if memory becomes a violation of regulations — then the problem is not the helmet. The world must hear this. Because silence is also a position. And indifference is also a choice. Memory cannot be disqualified. And conscience cannot be added to a prohibited list. 🇺🇦 We remember every one of them. And we will not allow their names to be erased.

ICA-SUV co-sponsored a webinar on Records in Context (RiC) with the IAAS) of SAA in July 2025, featuring Florence Clavaud and Carina McDowell as they discussed their work with the Records in Context (RiC) standard. Please see the recording of the event: youtube.com/watch?v=Qrfbo2…

La preuve par l’exemple

Pas mieux.

Alors chez vous je ne sais pas, mais chez moi, "Questions pour un champion" c'est l'émission que je regarde avec ma (vieille) mère quand je vais la voir, dans sa maison sous les arbres. C'est (la seule) émission qu'elle a fait regarder à mes mômes, qui a contribué à les rendre

California will keep fighting on behalf of all our people including in the courts. If some of us can be snatched off the streets without a warrant, based only on suspicion or skin color, then none of us are safe. Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves. But they do not stop there. Trump and his loyalists thrive on division because it allows them to take more power and exert even more control.

A sobering message from a history teacher: I’ve spent years teaching American and international government — from strong democracies like the UK to authoritarian regimes like russia and China. But lately, the most alarming lesson comes from home. 1/n

Merci à Christophe Clavé pour cet éclairage sur l’appauvrissement de la langue et la ruine de la pensée 🙌 "La disparition progressive des temps (subjonctif, passé simple, imparfait, formes composées du futur, participe passé…) donne lieu à une pensée au présent, limitée à l’instant, incapable de projections dans le temps. La généralisation du tutoiement, la disparition des majuscules et de la ponctuation sont autant de coups mortels portés à la subtilité de l’expression. Supprimer le mot «mademoiselle» est non seulement renoncer à l’esthétique d’un mot, mais également promouvoir l’idée qu’entre une petite fille et une femme il n’y a rien. Moins de mots et moins de verbes conjugués c’est moins de capacités à exprimer les émotions et moins de possibilité d’élaborer une pensée. Des études ont montré qu’une partie de la violence dans la sphère publique et privée provient directement de l’incapacité à mettre des mots sur les émotions. Sans mot pour construire un raisonnement, la pensée complexe chère à Edgar Morin est entravée, rendue impossible. Plus le langage est pauvre, moins la pensée existe. L’histoire est riche d’exemples et les écrits sont nombreux de Georges Orwell dans « 1984 » à Ray Bradbury dans « Fahrenheit 451 » qui ont relaté comment les dictatures de toutes obédiences entravaient la pensée en réduisant et tordant le nombre et le sens des mots. Il n’y a pas de pensée critique sans pensée. Et il n’y a pas de pensée sans mots. Comment construire une pensée hypothético-déductive sans maîtrise du conditionnel ? Comment envisager l’avenir sans conjugaison au futur ? Comment appréhender une temporalité, une succession d’éléments dans le temps, qu’ils soient passés ou à venir, ainsi que leur durée relative, sans une langue qui fait la différence entre ce qui aurait pu être, ce qui a été, ce qui est, ce qui pourrait advenir, et ce qui sera après que ce qui pourrait advenir soit advenu ? Si un cri de ralliement devait se faire entendre aujourd’hui, ce serait celui, adressé aux parents et aux enseignants : faites parler, lire et écrire vos enfants, vos élèves, vos étudiants. Enseignez et pratiquez la langue dans ses formes les plus variées, même si elle semble compliquée, surtout si elle est compliquée. Parce que dans cet effort se trouve la liberté. Ceux qui expliquent à longueur de temps qu’il faut simplifier l’orthographe, purger la langue de ses «défauts», abolir les genres, les temps, les nuances, tout ce qui crée de la complexité sont les fossoyeurs de l’esprit humain. Il n’est pas de liberté sans exigences. Il n’est pas de beauté sans la pensée de la beauté." Christophe Clavé

🤖📚 What happens when archives meet artificial intelligence? Step into the unknown at AI and the Archives – the 29th Archival Science Colloquium hosted by the Archivschule Marburg (Germany). From transforming workflows to shaping historical research, AI is beginning to leave its mark on archival practice. What’s already happening? What’s next? 🗓️ 20–21 May 2025 🌍 Online | Open to all Explore first-hand experiences, emerging applications, and big questions at the intersection of AI and archives. Register now! 🔗 archivschule.de/DE/forschung/a… #NewsFromICAMembers

Encore une superbe adresse de l’excellent @ClaudeMalhuret à nos amis.. le peuple américain .. écoutez.. c’est savoureux 👍

When words fall short, symbols speak. Like the motifs Ukrainians paint on Pysanky, their traditional Easter eggs – symbols of resilience and hope, unbroken by Russian aggression. The EU supports Ukraine in the war and along its European path. For a prosperous, peaceful future.

RDF vs. LPG: Graph Databases Demystified. 🧐 Jeremy Debattista's new article cuts through the hype and provides an objective comparison of RDF and LPG data models. towardsdatascience.com/lets-call-a-sp…

Puisque je vois de plus en plus de chrétiens radicaux partager leur homophobie crasse en citant le pitoyable Lévitique, je remets cette vidéo que j'avais déjà partagée

"Fatigue. On a le sentiment parfois depuis trois jours que le débat public a perdu pied, balloté par les outrances et les mensonges du RN et de ses puissants porte-voix médiatiques" Cet édito de Patrick Cohen est impeccable voire salutaire ! 🙏👏👏👏

Il faut l'exiger et le rappeler inlassablement : le retour des enfants ukrainiens déportés est une condition non négociable de tout accord . Y renoncer constituerait une catastrophe morale et stratégique. Vous pouvez toujours signer notre appel ici ⤵️: pourlukraine.com/post/retour-de…

Please repost, translate, and spread this message. Share it with foreigners, journalists, and politicians. The world needs to know. I am not a soldier. I never aspired to be one. I am a historian, a researcher, a museum worker, and a writer. But now, I am at war.

This is Colonel Nicole Malachowski. A 21-year veteran of the Air Force, she is the first woman to fly with the Thunderbirds and flew 26 missions in Iraq. Trump has removed all mention of her from federal websites. RETWEET if you stand with @RealMalachowski against Trump!

Dear Americans, Since the White House press secretary is attacking me today, I wanted to tell you this ⤵️