Gateway to 21st Century Skills

Initiating discovery by searching

A search of resources described in GEM can be started in two separate ways. The first--and simplest--is to type a search query into the text search box on the GEM homepage. That query can be in the form of a few words that express the subject matter of your interest. The search engine will find all of the resources in GEM that contain your search terms.

By default, GEM will look for your terms in the full text of the GEM records. However, if you would prefer to confine your search to a specific facet, you can select from the drop down menu the «title», «description» or «keyword» facet. For a description of each of these facets and the full text search, see the table below.

An alternative way to start a search is to click on the horizontal "search" tab or the "search" folder in the left-hand navigation window. You will be taken to the search & browse screen where you'll find the search box and the master facet listing of all of the resource descriptions in GEM. Regardless of whether you begin your search on the GEM homepage or from the search page itself, from here on out, the search/browse process is the same.

Once the search engine has executed your query, you are presented with a result set of resource descriptions and their accompanying facets and facet terms in the right-hand window. At this point, you may elect to start browsing using the facets as described in Initiating discovery by browsing. At any point, you can elect to limit the set of retrieved descriptions by entering an additional word or phrase in the search text box and clicking on the "Search within these results" radio button and hitting "Go."

More information: Discovery by browsing ...