Information on how to use GEM's Seamark search engine effectively.
Here are some valuable things to know before you start using the Gateway ...
Do I need to register and login to access and use GEM resources?
Absolutely not! Be our GEM Guest. Without registering or logging in, you can search and browse to find useful educational resources. You can check out the GEM and Consortium member news and our Featured Collection. If you are interested, you can learn about how the GEM project works and check out the project documentation and tools. All without registering or logging into the system. At this time Consortium members contributing resources to The Gateway log into the system to manage their resources.
What do I need to know to search effectively for educational resources in GEM?
GEM uses a new, advanced retrieval engine named Seamark from Siderean Software to help you find resources that meet your needs. The engine is built around a search technique called "faceted searching". Faceted searching combines the processes of searching for specific words and phrases somewhat as one does in Yahoo!® and Google® with browsing descriptions of resources based on what are called facets. The result is a powerful new interface that supports exploration as well as discovery of resources.
The key to this powerful new interface is the organization of the resources described in GEM around specific characteristics of the resources that educators find useful—we call those characteristics facets. From here on out, the names of facets in GEM information appear inside double angle brackets (« »)—e.g., «subject» denotes the subject facet.
More information: Facets ...Two ways to discover Resources: Search & browse
When you are ready to find useful educational resources, you can start the process of discovery in two different ways: (1) by using a simple Google® like search using words and phrases that expresses some aspect of the resources you want to find; or (2) by browsing from a master list of the facets in GEM. It is important to know that it does not matter which of these two ways of starting a search you choose, the remainder of the search process is the same for both. Let's look at each way to start a search separately.
Initiating discovery by browsing
- Click on the Browse folder tab to go to the Search/Browse homepage.
- Browsing facets are displayed as illustrated in the following screenshot.
- Each facet can be expanded by clicking on the Show arrow
to expose its listing of terms to browse. In the screen shot above, the «subject» facet has been expanded. The numbers beside each word or phrase represent the total number of resource descriptions (called GEM records)in The GatewaySM that have been assigned that word or phrase.
- Clicking on a facet word or phrase pertinent to your information need. The following screen shot is the result of clicking on the word "arts" in the «subject» facet list.
GEM presents you with a listing of all those resource descriptions that contain the term "arts" in their «subject» facet.
In the right-hand column is a listing of the facets and terms found in the resource description listing. You can narrow your set of resource descriptions even further by selecting an additional pertinent facet term. In the following screen shot, we have selected the term "Lesson plans" from the «type » facet list thus reducing the set of document descriptions to only those that are lesson plans.
- If necessary, the set of resource descriptions can be reduced even further by selecting additional facet terms until only those remain that are most useful.
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 every page. 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.
More information: Discovery by searching ...
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