Music professor uses AI to translate historical orchestra documents 

What prompted your use of AI in your research?  

I had a research funded trip to the Auschwitz Archives in Poland, as well as to the archives of The Imperial War Museum and the Wiener Holocaust Library in London.  

This research is to complete an orchestra concert biography of the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz using first-hand accounts and testimonies from women who were in the orchestra as well as Auschwitz prisoners who remember hearing the orchestra. Other documents that give as authoritative account as possible include letters to the orchestra and documents describing their duties. 

During this trip, I acquired over 2,000 photographs of documents, letters, testimony, and other written material, in English, German, Polish, and Yiddish. Some are typed, but many are handwritten. The cost of professional translations and deciphering of the handwriting of this number of pages is mostly cost prohibitive.  

AI is able to not only translate the typed documents but to type out and translate the handwritten ones as well.  I used specific prompts, such as to create a “literal translation only; any words that would be colloquial vernacular please bold and also create a glossary at the end of the document.” 

This allows reading of the documents in a “first instance,” in order to choose which documents or letters to invest in by handing them off to a professional translator to provide an “authoritative” translation. AI has also helped catalog and organize all the photographs, and quickly assign them into their written translations, meaning we will hopefully never risk separating a photo of the original document from their first translation. 

I looked at the volume of what I had acquired and knew there was no way I could get through the volume of pages, or all the languages (I’m only English and German-fluent) on my own. 

Describe the work you are doing with AI related to your class, including the tools you use.  

I use Claude. For me, it works great. I assign the “rules” of the project, and then it is just the time of adding in the photos of the documents and having it make the translations. I translated two days of research and around 600 pages in about 8 hours. That means typed out, with a colloquial definition area provided at the end. 

How did the use of AI impact the outcome?

AI made the outcome actually possible. I would guess it cut two years or more off the project timeline, as well as made it possible in terms of budget. 

How did students react to the use of AI? Did you see improved student engagement or learning?  

I have yet to have students use AI. However I did just get a student research supporter, who will also be linking into the Claude interface to do work as well. This will allow me to check in on the translations that they achieve, without us having to email them back and forth and having to track hundreds of emails, as each letter would require it’s own email chain or storage folder in the Cloud. It will serve as a true “workspace office” for all this work. 

What role (if any) do your concerns about the consequences of AI (environmental, social, academic, others) play in your work with AI?  

I have environmental concerns based on energy and heat, and especially intrusion of data farms into people’s areas of living. I have heard the noise of a data farm, and it is debilitatingly loud. I am also concerned about the amount of energy AI uses. However, I hope that if given some time, just like other technologies, these early engineering and physical challenges will become better and more efficient. 

What surprised you about your work to integrate more AI in your work?  

I definitely think that AI can have a positive impact on academia. Since I’ve used Claude and gotten comfortable, I use it for administrative tasks that frankly over-run my academic work. I also use it to create class outlines, using the “talk to text” function.  I’m a fast typer, but I think better when speaking instead of typing.  So this lets me work in my best way, and have something else quickly do the typing and formatting of the document. 

For instance, I make an outline of the class date, and then the title. I can also snap a photo of notes or things I jot down on the go, and put it into Claude.  It ends up in an organized, typed system, and I don’t have to type. To do my class outline, I said “repeat every Tuesday and Thursday” with dates through the end of the semester, and I had it in five seconds. It just takes away a lot of the word processing or outline arranging so I can get on to other things. 

Do you have advice for other faculty trying your idea?  

Just try it slowly. Build a system and rules that you see results in the system that stay neat and within the guidelines you expect. Then try it in a longer process. You will find your way. 

Karin Hendrickson is an assistant professor of music at UNM.