Library Search - George Fox Primo: Searching Primo Tips

The colored dots let you know the availability of an item.

Green dot = item is available at George Fox Library.  Click on the "Get It" or "View It" link (be sure you're signed in). Choose "Request" for physical items and follow the prompts.

Yellow dot =  item is available at other libraries. If the Yellow dot says "check holdings", click the "Get It" link and click more to see where it's held and request.

Gray dot = item is not available at the George Fox  or Summit Library. Submit an interlibrary loan request.

When searching Primo the following operators can help to narrow or broaden a search. Be sure to USE ALL CAPS

• AND – retrieves results that have all the specified terms. So a search for apples AND oranges will only retrieve results that have apples and oranges in the results. It is a useful way to narrow your search.  

• OR – retrieves results with at least one of the search terms. So a search for Cape Verde OR Cabo Verde will retrieve results that include either the terms Cape Verde or the terms Cabo Verde or both .  It is a useful way to search for related terms or synonyms.

• NOT – excludes any search results that includes the specified term. It is most useful to use NOT when trying to eliminate irrelevant results.  For example, if you’re pulling up a lot of book reviews when looking for articles about the Game of Thrones, you might search for Game of Thrones NOT book review.

Type in a keyword, phrase or title and search by the default of Everything or use the dropdown menu to limit your search. Visit the "Primo Search Examples" page to view an example search for a title.

View the box below to learn how to find print books and other physical GFU items and the right side box to find and access GFU e-books.

To broaden a search, enter an asterisk * at the end of a word  to perform a multiple character wildcard search (up to five characters)

For example:  educat* retrieves the words educate, educator, education, etc.

You can also broaden a search in the following ways:

• Use the scope Everything.
• Type OR in uppercase letters between words or phrases to find at least one of the words or phrases. If you do not specify OR, Primo assumes you are searching for all the specified words or phrases.

You can often get better results if you search for a phrase by typing quotation marks around the phrase. You can also combine both words and phrases in your search.

For example:

"African Americans" and psychology

Note: If you do not enclose the phrase with quotation marks, Primo will find items that contain the individual words in the phrase, regardless of whether these words are located next to each other in the order specified.

Sign in to Primo from the upper right menu on the Primo search results page

When you sign in to Primo, you are able to do the following:

• Access your account to view what you currently have checked out
• Request or renew items
• Access externally licensed resources
• Save items from your results list and searches you have performed for future use
• Set preferences to reflect the way you usually search and save them for future sessions

E-shelf allows you to save and organize items you find when searching Primo. To access e-Shelf, click the e-Shelf link at the top of the page.

When you select the star icon for an item in the search results, Primo highlights the icon and adds the item to the basket folder in e-Shelf.