Ask questions

The answers




What is the Limo AI Assistant?


The Limo AI Assistant is a tool that uses generative AI (specifically, a Large Language Model or LLM). It allows you to explore academic and professional content by asking questions in natural language. The tool searches a large collection of online resources in the library catalogue and selects five documents that can answer your question. It then extracts the key information from the descriptions and summaries of these resources to formulate an answer. Above the answer, you can see which sources were used, with inline citations in the text that indicate which source was used for each part of the answer. Use these sources to further explore the topic and verify the tool's answers.
Note: AI-generated answers should always be checked for correctness, as they may not always be accurate or up-to-date.



The Limo AI Assistant is designed to make it easier to understand topics and their context, and to find reliable sources on them.
Use the 'View all results in Limo' button to find more sources.
Click on the AI-generated 'Related search queries' to explore related topics.



Asking questions in the Limo AI Assistant view


How to formulate a good search question

To get the most out of the Limo AI Assistant, it is best to start with a clear, concrete and detailed question on a scientific or professional topic. Do not enter loose search terms, but formulate a real question.

Try to focus your question on a specific topic, and use technical terms. Because it makes use of a large language model, the Limo AI Assistant is able to refine your question to a limited extent, e.g. by including synonyms of technical terms in the search query. But, the quality of your initial search question remains a vital factor for the quality of the results. On the Limo AI Assistant homepage, you can find some example questions.

So do's and don'ts are:

  • Use one clear research question
    => One topic per question
    => Include only essential info
  • Avoid unnecessary 'ballast' in your questions such as:
    'Hallo Limo', 'Please', 'Thank you', 'Can I ask something' ..
  • Avoid meaningless introductions like:
    'Give me sources about...', 'Find 5 publications about...', 'Find info about...',


What language support is available?

The Limo AI Assistant supports search questions in different languages. However, most documents are in English. Therefore, if you ask a question in a language other than English, the assistant searches in both your local language and English, and writes the answer in the language of your question.

Keep in mind that the quality of the output depends on the large language model and that language support may vary. Therefore, you may get less good results especially for smaller languages.

The Limo AI Assistant currently makes use of GPT-40 mini for language processing and translation. You may add language-specific instructions to your question, just as in ChatGPT. For example, you can add 'answer in German' or 'answer in French' at the end of your search question.


How to filter your results?

You can limit your results on a few criteria. For example, you can specify that you only want sources from peer-reviewed journals. The following filters are available: articles, books, peer-reviewed, a date period and online availability. For example, if you ask for "recent" or "the latest" material, search results will be limited to publications from the past 5 years. The Limo AI Assistant will extract these terms directly from your search.

! ATTENTION

The AI Assistent doesn't understand all terms you may want to use for filtering.
For example: it understands the instruction : 'Use articles' but not : 'Use papers'



Use the  filter button on the left side of the search box to manually activate the filters.


Image of the available filters

The filter will remain active for all your subsequent searches, unless you delete it ( via the bin on the right side of the screen) or you select a different filter.


Unsupported questions/instructions

! ATTENTION

The Limo AI Assistant does not yet support follow-up questions. Each question stands on its own. For example, if you ask "which topics did Simone de Beauvoir write about", you cannot follow up with the question "and what is the content of that work" and expect the system to understand what you mean. For each question, you should include all relevant information, e.g. What is the content of Simone de Beauvoir's "The Second Sex"?

Support for follow-up questions is planned for future releases.

Back to top


The answers


How are answers generated?

When you ask the Limo AI Assistant a question, it first converts your question into a 'classic' search query in Limo. Based on this query, relevant results are retrieved. Next, the assistant compares the summaries of the top 30 results with your search question. The summaries of the five best matching sources are used to generate an answer.

The answer is usually short and does not offer much detail; it rather offers a first indication of the usefulness of the sources found for your search query. Inline citations ensure transparency about the sources of the information provided. Consult the original sources to delve deeper into the topic and to verify the tool's answers.

Note that, for now, the Limo AI Assistant cannot search all records in the Limo environment. For more info, see the next question 'Which sources are searched to generate the answers?'

It is typical of large language models that they can give different answers to the same question, even when the question is repeated during the same session. It is also possible that the selection of the five most relevant sources changes if you repeat the question. The "Try again" button allows you to repeat your question.


Which sources are searched to generate the answers?

! ATTENTION

The Limo AI Assistant can currently only search collections that are available through the central databases in Limo. Local collections are not included in the search, such as physical materials, some e-book collections, articles from local journals and part of Lirias, the repository of KU Leuven publications.

The central collection used by the Limo AI Assistant includes over 5 billion scientific publications, most of which are searchable.

Keep in mind that some collections of records - which may be relevant to you - are excluded:

  • News media (newspaper articles, newsletters,...)
  • Sources of which the content cannot be assessed adequately from the available metadata, e.g. sources without an abstract
  • Retracted publications
  • Sources without publicly available description
  • A limited number of collections excluded at the request of a data provider. The following data providers have not given permission for the Limo AI Assistant to use their data:
    • APA
    • DataCite
    • Elsevier
    • JSTOR
    • Conde Nast

Why are some resources in the overview not accessible?

The Limo AI Assistant searches all collections in the central database, including those for which your institution does not have a subscription. Therefore, a source cited in the overview may not be accessible. However, you can filter your results to only publications that are online available to you.

! KEY ISSUE

A number of records (including some publications from Lirias) are incorrectly listed as inaccessible. A solution to this is planned.

Back to top


View all results in Limo


Which sources are shown via the "View all results Limo" button?

On clicking the 'View all results in Limo' button, the Limo AI Assistant will take you to the familiar Limo search environment. Here, you will see the full results list of the search query that the Limo AI Assistant formulated based on your search question. The five relevant sources shown under the answer are also selected from this list.

If you want to get more insight into the query that the Limo AI Assistant created based on your question, you can view it in the search box and/or modify it to further fine-tune the results. However, these queries usually are not good examples of strategies to get started with complex queries in a standard Limo search. But they may provide some inspiration for search terms to include in your search query.


Why are the 5 sources from the answer not at the top of Limo's results list when I click "View all results in Limo" ?

This is due to the technical setup of the tool. The Limo AI Assistant converts your query into a search query in Limo. These results are ranked according to the 'classic' Limo ranking principles. Before the tool formulates an answer, the first 30 results are ranked again, this time using the large language model. The large language model applies different ranking principles: it sorts results based on a content comparison of the sources' summaries with your search question.

Therefore, when you click "View all results in Limo", you will typically see different sources at the top of the results list than the five shown in the Limo AI Assistant's overview because:

  • different algorithms are used to rank results
  • the entire collection is searched now, including your library's local records and other resources not accessible to the Limo AI Assistant

Back to top


Known issues and planned extensions


Known issues for which a solution is planned:


Planned extensions:

Back to top


Share your experiences

Do you want to help make the tool even better? Share your experiences with us:

  • Did the Limo AI Assistant provide a good answer to your search question? Do you want to share any comments on its output? Let us know via the thumbs up/thumbs down buttons below the answer.
  • Give feedback on your experiences with the Limo AI Assistant. Complete the survey - it doesn't take much time and it provides vital information to further improve the search tools of tomorrow.

Colophon

Last modified on 22.05.2025