2.3.8 GEM (Gateway to Educational Materials)

Lead 

U.S Department of Education 

Origin 

U.S.A 

Background 

Founded in 1996, GEM established and developed the architecture, software, and training materials 

necessary to build and maintain The Gateway to Educational Materials which was introduced in 1997. This 

project has been funded at least in part with Federal funds from the U.S. Department of Education. 

Consortium members range from government agencies, both federal and state, educational institutions, non 

profit and commercial organizations.  

As of May 2004, educators can access over 40,000 records from over 600 Consortium member collections by 

searching or browsing The Gateway. GEM uses a new, advanced retrieval engine named Seamark from 

Siderean Software. The engine is built around a search technique called "faceted searching". 

URL 

http://www.thegateway.org/ 

Aims and 

The aim is to expand educators  capability to access Internet based lesson plans, instructional units and other 

Objectives 

educational materials in all forms and formats.  

GEM s goal is to improve the organization and accessibility of the substantial collections of materials that are 

already available on various federal, state, university, non profit, and commercial Internet sites. 

The Gateway to Educational Materials

SM

 is a Consortium effort to provide educators with quick and easy 

access to thousands of educational resources found on various federal, state, university, non profit, and 

commercial Internet sites. 

GEM uses a new, advanced retrieval engine named Seamark from Siderean Software to help you find 

resources that meet your needs. The engine is built around a search technique called "faceted searching". 

Faceted searching combines the processes of searching for specific words somewhat as one does in Yahoo!

and Google

 with browsing descriptions of resources based on what are called "facets." The result is a 

powerful new interface that supports exploration as well as discovery of resources.

Metadata 

Dublin Core 

Standards 

Content 

unable to find information at time of writing 

Packaging 

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