GALILEO is an aggregator of academic databases for college
students with a discovery tool (similar to a federated search, if that means
anything to anyone here) that provides for retrieval of resources for student use.
Try it above. In order to get the full functionality you must be a student in a Georgia institution, but you should get a good idea of how it works by using the above widget. The “goal” of GALILEO is to provide information and facilitate the finding of
specific information. Many of the database products in GALILEO have other learning
features such as citation generators, etc.
GALILEO does not overtly “teach” a particular skill, but it
assists in the learning process by providing access to resources and supporting
information. The primary technology involved in teaching students to use
GALILEO is called a librarian. What can
users learn from GALILEO? Well, aside from just retrieving articles, GALILEO
can assist students in getting an overview of a topic, finding a search
vocabulary, and creating a search strategy.
GALILEO is, in a way, both content and procedure- it contains the
content (articles and other resources) and provides the procedure (discovery
tool, search vocabulary, and search construction) for most efficiently accessing
the content. It is most definitely a constructionist technology. With every
search you conduct and search strategy you create, you are learning how search
engines work and gaining the skills to search better. I guess you could say it’s
open-ended because while the specific goal is finding and using information,
the type of information for which the student can search is infinite in its
possibilities.
An earlier technology that is somewhat analogous to GALILEO
(hey, paper is a technology, right?) is the old library catalog,
contained in massive wooden cabinets full of 3x5 cards. I would also include microfiche
catalogs in this category because the worked in exactly the same fashion. They just
took up less space. Unlike GALILEO, the card catalog required a pretty hefty
knowledge of controlled vocabulary to use. Although its intended audience was
the average library user, it inherently required the hand-holding of a
librarian to use effectively at all. Instead of using keywords that could
search the entire document citation or full text, library catalogs had limited
entry points. If you looked for
information on feline diseases, for instance, you first had to find out whether
they were going to be listed under “felines” or “cats” in the catalog. Maybe
there was a “see also” card under “felines” referring you to the correct
subject heading, “cats” but maybe there wasn’t. Searches could potentially end
quite early with no satisfactory result. Learning about search strategy construction by
performing repeat searches was nearly impossible because the search vocabulary
(and the number of access points) was so limited. Often a librarian had to be consulted just to
find the proper subject heading.
With GALILEO, librarians are able to actively involve
students in the search for information and really hone a student’s ability to
seek, find and use information in a way the card catalog just couldn’t. In this
way it is also more playful than the card catalog. I tell students all the time
to just play with it. Experiment with search terms and strategies. I went to library school because of GALILEO
and technologies like it so I will have to say that the reason I find it
engaging, thought provoking, motivating, whatever, is the power that it puts in
my hands to find good, authoritative, useful information on virtually any
topic.
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