Addlestone Library is open to the College of Charleston community and affiliates via card access. Visitors may access Addlestone Library Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm, and must present a government issued ID and sign in upon entry.
The Research Assistant is a new AI-based feature in the library's Discovery Service. Enter a research question, and the Research Assistant will find 5 highly relevant, scholarly sources. In addition to identifying highly relevant sources, the Research Assistant uses generative AI to provide a brief overview summary. This overview includes in-text citations to the 5 sources, so you can see how claims are being developed.
Where do the sources come from?
The Research Assistant uses real sources from many library databases available at CofC, as well as millions of additional sources from libraries around the world. Some sources can be accessed in full text immediately, while others are available through an Interlibrary Loan or PASCAL request. A few providers, including JSTOR and Elsevier, do not currently allow their sources to be searched by the Research Assistant.
How can I incorporate it into my research?
The Research Assistant can be a good starting point, but it can produce inaccurate representations of real sources. Users are encouraged to carefully evaluate results and to build on Research Assistant by using the option in the tool to View more results from the library. This will perform a traditional Discovery search with similar search terms, so you can verify the accuracy and relevance of the Research Assistant and find even more sources for your research.
