You can use JSTOR Seeklight to generate alternative text for images in your collections. When published to JSTOR, your images’ alt text will be available to users via the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) viewer.
Alt text can be generated or manually added to any image in JSTOR Stewardship Tier 3, whether or not it was originally uploaded through Seeklight. Seeklight-generated alt text can be edited or downloaded from JSTOR Stewardship, or you can choose to write your own alt text. See our guidelines for writing alt text for recommendations.
Example: If you upload an image as a PDF, Seeklight may classify this as a “Document” based on its file type. When published to JSTOR, this item will be displayed in a PDF viewer rather than the IIIF viewer. To prevent this: edit the item’s Resource Type and select a type associated with the “Images” content type (ex. “Photographs”, “Paintings”).
Generating alt text with Seeklight
You can generate alt text for images when uploading items through Seeklight, or you can generate it at any time from the project view or an individual item’s page within JSTOR Stewardship.
During upload
To generate alt text for images during upload:
- To start with a new project, select Upload media and generate metadata with JSTOR Seeklight from the JSTOR Stewardship Home page.
- Alternatively, to add items to an existing project, open the Add drop-down menu and select Upload & Generate Metadata.
- See Generating, reviewing, and editing metadata for more information.
- Select Browse Files and choose your PDF (.pdf), JPEG (.jpeg/.jpg), or TIFF (.tiff/.tif) file(s).
- For TIFF, individual files up to 400MB are supported.
- Optionally, select Group into a Compound Object? to combine multiple sequenced images into a single record based on their filenames.
- Alt text will be generated for each image file associated with a compound object.
- While multiple image file types are supported with compound objects, only JPEG and TIFF files are supported when generating alt text with Seeklight.
- See Compound Objects for more information.
- Select the checkbox before Create alt text for images and transcripts for text.
- Select Upload.
Alt text will be generated for supported files along with item-level metadata and transcripts (if applicable), and will appear under the Alt Text tab on the item page after processing.
For existing content
From the item page
To generate alt text for an individual item:
- In your project, double-click an item to edit it or select an item and select Edit.
- Select the Alt Text tab.
- Select the Generate alt text button to generate alt text for a single image or all images associated with a compound object.
- Alternatively, for compound objects, you can generate alt text for a specific file by opening the corresponding alt text field’s Alt text actions menu and selecting Generate alt text.
Your items’ alt text will be generated and will appear under the Alt Text tab on the item page after processing.
From the project view
To generate alt text for one or more items in bulk:
- In your project, select one or more items from the project view.
- Open the Seeklight drop-down menu and select Generate alt text.
Your items’ alt text will be generated and will appear under the Alt Text tab on the item page after processing.
For items that were not previously processed through Seeklight, generating alt text will count as one (1) item out of your item allowance.
Reviewing and editing alt text
People flagging
Seeklight will flag your image within Stewardship if people are detected. This flag displays after the alt text on the item edit page and is intended to help you review and edit your generated alt text.
Your institution may have existing guidelines for how to handle images of people and how you handle images of people may vary by collection. If needed, our guidelines for writing alt text include describing images of people in an archival, special, and distinctive collections context.
We recommend more closely reviewing alt text for images that include people, as any AI-generated content can include potential errors, omissions, or subtle inaccuracies that may contribute to unintentional bias.
Uncertainty reasons
Seeklight will list details that might be unclear in the image, such as illegible text or partially visible elements, to aid in your review of the generated alt text. These uncertainty reasons can be found after the alt text box on the item edit page.
For example, an uncertainty reason might note the identification of an object in the image is unclear. You can then review if the object was correctly identified in the alt text and make adjustments, if needed.
In some cases, the uncertainty reasons might note details that are not necessary to include in the alt text, such as non-meaningful background details. As the uncertainty reasons are there to assist in your review, you can decide if what is noted is relevant.
Clearing or reverting to generated alt text
To clear generated or manually-added alt text from an item:
- In your project, double-click an item to edit it or select an item and select Edit.
- Select the Alt Text tab.
- Open the three-dot Alt text actions menu beside the alt text field you wish to clear and select Clear alt text.
- Select Save or Save and close to save your changes to the item.
If you’ve manually edited alt text generated by Seeklight, you can revert to the original Seeklight-generated alt text at any time by selecting Revert to generated alt text.