Using Library Resources

Saving, citing, and sharing is quite easy in PRIMO. To download academic articles, however, you’ll have to access them through the links under the “View Online” section. For more information, consult the “Downloading articles” section of this guide.

The most common ways to save or share an article are listed here. These options can be found in the results section towards the top right side of each search result, or under the “Send To” section inside a record, which you can get to by clicking on the title of the results you want to save or share.

Quotation: By clicking on this icon, you can obtain a basic citation of the related result. These citations are not full citations, so always correct them before using them.

Chain links: By clicking on this icon, you’ll be able to obtain a permalink (direct link) to a particular resource. This will be the most direct way to access a result after saving it.

• Note: Never save the URL at the top of the page when sharing a search result; use the permalink instead.

Pin: When clicking on this pin icon, you are creating a list of results that you can then share. You can access this list by clicking on the pin icon at the top of the page.

• Note: If you are not signed in, any saved lists will disappear when you close your tab or leave the library website.

Many articles that you locate through PRIMO will have one or two sets of red arrows next to the usual sharing/saving icons:

• Upwards branching arrow: Use to locate articles that have cited the article.
• Downwards joining arrow: Use to locate articles that are cited within the article.

While this feature can be quite useful to identify similar articles, it is important to note that PRIMO will not display all articles that are cited within an article nor all the articles that have cited the article you are looking at. Similarly, you may not be able to access all of the articles that appear under this result list, but you can always request them through Interlibrary Loan.

To quickly locate books and music scores in the library, use the library homepage. By clicking on the “Advanced Search” link located under the main search bar and then selecting either “Books” or “Sound recordings” under the “Material Type” section, you’ll be able to search through all the relevant resources held in the library.

Once you have conducted a search, use the search filters on the left side to further narrow your search and locate sources appropriate for your research. After locating an item that seems useful, the catalog will provide you with a call number that you can use to locate it in the building.

If you are looking for more sources similar to one you found, you can look at the subjects for that item. These subjects are located under the “Details” section of the record. Clicking on any of these will run a search and display items with this subject. Note that you can customize this search to add additional filters and keywords.

Additionally, once you locate a book on the shelf, you can also find similar items in that area. If you are not on campus, you are also able to do this while you are searching. Under the “Virtual Browse” section, you are able to see what other books are located next to the one you need.

The quickest way to locate academic articles for your research is to use the library search interface, PRIMO. Depending on your preference, you can start locating articles in one of two ways:

• Run a search in the search box located in the library homepage. Once you have a list of results, look at the search filters on the left side of the screen and select either “Peer-reviewed Journals” under the Availability menu, or “Articles” under the Material Type menu. The only difference between these two options is that when you select “Articles,” you are given both peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed articles.
• Click on the Advanced Search link under the search box located in the library homepage. Once you have entered your keywords, select “Articles” under the Material Type menu. Once you have a list of results, you can also select “Peer-reviewed Journals,” as indicated above, to narrow your search results to peer-reviewed articles.

Alternatively, the A-Z Database List can also give you access to all the databases that the PLU library subscribes to. As a reminder, a database refers to research resources that contain different types of resources, usually academic articles. To best use the A-Z List, it will be important to know which databases are most used within your major/field of study. You can learn more about this by consulting with your professor or contacting one of the librarians. To help you, we have also sorted the databases by their subject (major/field) and type (news, primary sources, for example).

Once you have a better sense of which databases will be best for you, you can access and search their contents by clicking on their name. Know that each of these databases will look differently, but most of the research strategies used in this guide will still help you. If you have any issues navigating any of these databases, please contact one of the librarians. Otherwise, you can also consult the Using Library Databases (in development) section below for more information about how to navigate through some of these resources.

When you already know the title of the journal that you are looking for, you can use PRIMO to search for that journal. By clicking on the “Journal Search” link under the main search bar on the library homepage, you’ll be able to search through our collection of journals.

This method, however, cannot be used to find journals about a topic. For example, you’ll be able to find journals that have the word “advertising” in the title, but you won’t find all journals that are related to “advertising.” If you do not know the specific title of a journal but know what topic you want to search, you can explore the “Journals by Category” section on the left-hand side of the Journal Search page. 

Once you have identified a journal in the list of results and clicked on the “Available Online” link, you’ll be able to see where you can access the journal and the coverage for each source. Clicking on any of these links will take you away from PRIMO and into another interface. Note that some journals can be accessed in more than one database; the only difference in these links is the range of coverage that each particular database provides.

GALE is a publisher of academic information that manages a number of different databases; each database looks the same, but each covers different topics. This guide will only cover Academic OneFile, since it offers the widest coverage, but you can find other GALE databases in the database list.

Basic Search and Main Page

The main page of all GALE databases gives you immediate access to a search bar that you can start using immediately to locate articles. In addition, you can find the following tools:

• Browse by Discipline: Browse different topics within a particular discipline. Only available in Academic OneFile.
• Topic Finder: Visualize your search terms and topics to find additional and related topics or search terms. This tool is not great for finding related articles.
• Subject Guide Search: Search articles tagged with a specific subject. This tool is most useful when you have a very specific topic.
• Publication Search: Locate specific academic journals or other publications.

Advanced Search

Located below the main search bar, advanced search will give you the most control over your search results. Consult the Research Strategies page for some strategies to help you develop your search terms. As you begin to use this resources, consider the following features:

• Field box: Limit your search to a specific section of an article, or other identifiers. After you select any of these, there is a description of what each does to the right of the box.
• Search tips: Learn about the many different search techniques you can use in GALE databases. Unfortunately, most of these techniques only work in GALE.

Search Results Page

Across all GALE databases, the search results page will look the same. On the left, you’ll find a list of search results, and on the right, a number of filters that can help you narrow your search even further.

• Peer-Reviewed Journals: Narrow down your results to only academic articles that have been peer reviewed. Note that this isn’t always accurate.
• Search Within: Search within the search results you already have. This tool works best when only using one search term at a time.
• Subjects: Select from all the different subjects represented in your search results.
• Publication Title: Select from all the different publications represented in your search results.

Article Page

Once you have located an article, you are ready to read it or download it. However, each article page comes with a number of useful tools and features.

• CITE/SEND/DOWNLOAD/PRINT: Located above and to the right of the title of the article, you can find a set of tools that let you cite, share, download, or print an article. Note that the Cite tool is not 100% accurate.
• Get Link: Located above and to the right of the title, this tool gives you a direct  link to an article you find. Use this tool instead of copying the URL of the page.
• Article Information: Below the title of the article, you can find information about the article. Clicking on names will search for additional sources by that person, and clicking on a publication name will take you to a page that lets you browse and search that particular publication.
• More Like This: This feature lists similar articles to the one you located.