Primo Search is CSU Library's main search tool. It searches across most of what  CSU Library provides, including:

• most of the Library's online journal articles and newspaper content
• books, journals, DVDs and other physical items found in the library
• many of the Library's eBooks
• CSU research papers and theses in CRO (CSU Research Output).

Primo Search is useful because:

• You are searching across many resources at once, in the one search
• You will get different types of materials in your results
• You can use the refiners at the left of the results screen to narrow your results in many different ways.

Things to keep in mind when searching in Primo Search:

• You might get too many results
• The search functions are limited compared to other search tools
• Because of the way the searching works, you might get results that aren't very relevant.

If you find that you are not getting good results from Primo Search, try searching in a database or package of databases.

Some hints on using Primo Search:

• It defaults to a keyword search. If you type in systematic review, it will search for those words separately (ie: systematic AND review). To search for a specific phrase, use inverted commas - "systematic review".

• The truncation symbol is the asterisk (*). Typing in research* will search for research, researcher, researchers, researching etc.

• When you find a journal article result, click on the Available online link and follow the prompts to get to the full article.

• If you get too many results in a search, try going to Advanced Search and changing your search so that you are searching in the Title or in the Subject (rather than in Any Field).

• Use the refiners on the left of the results screen to narrow your results. There are refiners for things like Resource Type, Dates, and Topics. If you can't see a refiner that you might want, within a list, click on the Show More link at the bottom of the list.

• Use Advanced Search for multiple search lines and extra limiters