Guide to Generative AI

A number of our database vendors have started to add AI tools to help guide and enhance your database searching. Many of these tools are in beta and will change over time so check the information from each vendor within the database for the most up-to-date functionality.

Natural Language Search

Our EBSCO databases now support natural language searching by default. You can type in your search as a question and the AI will translate it into a Boolean search string, adding in alternative keywords based on your terms. 

Example

"how does climate change affect farming in Asia?"

is translated as

((climate change OR global warming) AND (farming OR agriculture) AND Asia)

and returns these results (NetID required to access).

Things to note

• You can toggle off the natural language search option
  
• You have to click on "show refined query" to see the search string that the AI creates
• Experiment with your natural language question for better results. Overly-specific or complex questions may yield no results 

Research Assistant

This AI tool will currently only appear in our Dissertations & Theses database from ProQuest. You will see it show up once you select a dissertation.

This tool provides:

Key Takeaway

• a brief "key takeaway" synopsis of the dissertation
• additional topics discussed in the work
• a brief "Relationship to your search terms" statement

Brainstorm Related Research Topics

• suggests a number of topic areas and descriptions

Important Concepts

• a number words and phrases with definitions
• links that will search each word or phrase in the database

AI-Assisted Search

This function will appear after a search is completed. 

It lists a number of AI-generated search terms that you can add to your existing search. Click on the "plus" sign next to each phrase to add it to your search.

When you enable Smart Search from the top of the main screen, you enable the following:

• natural language searching. AI will interpret your search terms and translate them into a Boolean search string
• personalized suggestions based on your current and saved search history (if logged in)