Skip to Main Content
Purdue University Purdue Logo Purdue Libraries

Library Search AI Research Assistant

Information about Library Seach AI Research Assistant, a new generative-AI powered tool to help you get started with your research.

What is Library Search AI Research Assistant?

Library Search AI Research Assistant is a generative AI-powered tool designed to streamline time-intensive tasks. It enables users to query academic content in natural language and utilizes the breadth of our library to pinpoint five resources (journal articles, dissertations, or eBooks) that can aid in answering users' questions. The tool distills the most pertinent information from the descriptions/abstracts of each resource to craft the response's overview that includes in-line references to the sources to provide transparency in how each source contributed to the response. Beneath the overview, these sources and additional sources are available for further exploration of the subject and for verifying the tool's responses.

Research Assistant functionalities include:

  • Semantic search / Natural language queries
  • Overview with references, based on the top 5 abstracts
  • Summaries based on results found in ExLibris's Central Discovery Index (CDI)
    • Purdue does not have access to everything within these collections; some resources will need to be requested through Interlibrary Loan
  • Links to the full text straight from the summary, if available
  • Links to the full result list in Library Search
  • Search suggestions to help the user expand the topic and learn more about it
  • Non-English search and answer support

library search AI research assistant