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GALILEO is a massive database (of databases) that can help you find scholarly information in a variety of source types and formats. Depending on the type of research, the stage of research you are in, or what you are looking for, GALILEO can be searched in several different ways. This page will show you how to browse GALILEO and use the filters so that you can do your research in the most efficient way possible. It will show you how to search GALILEO by browsing and filtering and how to filter results by database. To learn how to get started with GALILEO, click here.
Using the discovery toolbar can often be helpful when starting research because it allows you to see a broad picture of the types of information sources that are available to you. This can also help you find information you might not have realized you were even looking for. One downside of using the discovery bar is that it can produce a search results list of millions. Later in the tutorial, we will look at refining the results to a more manageable number.
Head to the Library Homepage
To browse all of GALILEO, there are a couple of ways to do it. One method is to use the search bar at the top of the page. Make sure that the GALILEO button is selected. The graphic below highlights where and what to do to begin searching using this method.
Using the GALILEO Discovery Bar is a great way to browse for information sources, especially at the beginning of the research process. However, it can often lead to a very long list of search results, often showing millions of search results, most of which will not be helpful.
There are several methods we can use to turn a list of millions to just a list of thousands or even a couple hundred with some tweaking to the keywords we use. Below are a few tutorials on how to reduce your search results to a more manageable amount that will be more useful for your research project.
For this example, we will use the search terms, 'ethics in accounting practices' as shown below. If you need assistance on how to get to the homepage, check out this short tutorial.
Once the subject filters are applied, we are left with 2,820 results, which is a massive reduction from our initial number of 386,000 results. If you want to remove one of the filters, click on the 'X' to the left of the search results list, and will cause the research results list to repopulate so you can try a different subject. The image below illustrates how to remove a filter that has been applied.
Using the language filter can be useful in removing articles that you would not be able to read because it is in another language. In our example, this helps remove several more by selecting English.
Filtering by 'Geography' is helpful when you want to focus on the topic in a specific region. However, sometimes this filter does not always provide the right focus. Meaning that if you select the 'United States,' as shown below, the article may be written in the United States, but does not focus on ethics in accounting practices in the United States. The opposite can sometimes be true as well. Therefore it is important to keep that in mind when analyzing the search results list.
Once all the desired filters are applied, we are now left with 11 search results. This does not guarantee that all of them will be relevant and help you with your research. However, it is much easier to look at 11 items, than looking at over 380,000 items, and even if none of them will help you, using filters can help you learn what subject filters will not work or which seem to work well and you need to try others to get more focused search results. You can remove filters, change your subject filters, or even adjust your keywords based on what you observe on the search results lists.
When browsing GALILEO, one way to reduce the number of results is by filtering by database. This means that the search engine can filter out everything except what you tell it to. This can be helpful when your search results list is very long, and you want to view all the results from one or two databases at a time.
From the Search Results list, look at the column on the left side that is labeled, Refine Results. These are different ways you can narrow your search results lists down. To use as an example, let's say we only want to see videos from the Films On Demand database when using the keywords, 'political science.' This is a very broad search term but it is a good example to show how much filtering your search results can help.
Scroll down until you see the option to select 'Limit by Database.'
Click on the 'More' link from the dropdown menus.
From there you can select more than one option. From our previous example, we'll find Films on Demand.
