Hidden Collections
Libraries hold remarkable primary and secondary materials that rarely surface through ordinary search behavior. Valuable scholarship stays buried behind metadata complexity.
Arcadia
An AI research agent for academic libraries
Turns catalogue complexity into scholarly momentum
See it in actionThe Problem
Broken Search
Keyword search often fails when language shifts across disciplines or periods. Researchers get partial matches instead of meaningful pathways through the catalogue.
Wasted Hours
Time is lost to query rewrites, filtering, and interface navigation. Attention moves from argument-building to mechanics of retrieval.
Arcadia doesn't do the research. It removes the friction standing between a researcher and their sources.
It is an embeddable widget that translates intent into robust catalogue discovery while preserving institutional systems and librarian standards.
<script src="https://www.arcadialib.com/static/widget.js"></script>
Why Libraries Should Care
Not a Shortcut, A Better Index
Arcadia handles navigation, not scholarship. Students still read, evaluate, and argue. What changes is how long it takes to find the right sources. The same efficiency a well-organised library provides, delivered faster.
Invisible to Your Systems
Arcadia reads your catalogue and never writes to it. No integration project, no IT overhaul. One line of code added to your existing website.
Built for How Scholars Think
Researchers ask questions the way they think, not the way catalogues are indexed. Arcadia interprets the intent behind a question, handles typos and informal phrasing, and translates it into precise catalogue searches automatically.
Live Demo
Use the Arcadia floating button in the lower-right corner to try the assistant on this page.
Demo catalogue covers:
Try asking:
Privacy and Security
◆No researcher conversations are stored by default.
◆Arcadia uses read-only catalogue access and does not alter institutional records.
◆Anthropic provides SOC 2-compliant infrastructure.
◆Your institutional API key remains controlled by the library.
Get in Touch
Libraries interested in pilots and implementation partnerships are warmly invited to contact us.
hello@arcadialib.com