Some basics - Searching the library catalog - Canisius University - Andrew L. Bouwhuis, S.J. Library at Canisius University

Catalog Search: Sample Results

Books are likely to provide the most in-depth information. Because of the importance or impact of your subject (person, place, idea, work of art/literature or event), some books may focus on a particular aspect, event, relationship, or influence. A narrower focus can lead to greater depth. Below is an example using Charles Dickens.

Keyword Search: Charles Dickens children
Enter your subject along with another keyword. Results are listed by relevance (most likely to be helpful are at the top).
Subject Search: Dickens Charles
Select Subject in the drop down menu and enter your subject (in Last Name, First Name order for a person). Scroll the results and click on the item(s) of interest to you.
Subject Search: English fiction 19th century
Are there other Subject heading appropriate for your subject? For example, is your subject a member of a group or from a particular time period? English fiction -- 19th century would be appropriate for the Charles Dickens. Books about Dickens or works by him may be a part of some of the works, but not necessarily the center.
Subject Search: Biography
To bring up all books classified as biographies, select Subject in the drop-down menu and enter Biography in the search field. Among the results will be biographical dictionaries, encyclopedias, and related disciplines containing biographical books.
Subject search: criticism
A Subject search for criticism will bring up books about criticism (e.g., critics) as well some criticisms.
Author search: Dickens Charles
Select Author in the drop down menu and enter your author(in Last Name, First Name order). Scroll the results and click on the item(s) of interest to you. This also applies for actors, directors and singers.
Title: Bleak House
Select Title in the drop down menu and enter the title of the work. There may be many items of the same or similar title to the one you are looking for. Click on the title of the most similar to check the full record.

Finding Books and Articles

What is Primo?
Primo is a powerful tool that searches our library's resources and more. This includes the library's catalog of print and online books, ebooks, videos, most of our article databases, and scholarly content freely available on the web. The strength of Primo is that it allows you to do a quick keyword search across many of our resources at the same time, providing a comprehensive view of all types of information in many different formats (books, journal articles, etc) available on a topic.

Primo is a great place to start your research. Once you find sources that you like or are on target to your topic, you may want to go directly into one of the recommended specialized databases (listed at the top of your search screen) and conduct your search again to access more appropriate sources.

You can access Primo from here via the link below.

Primo Search

Basic Search
With the Primo tab selected, start typing in your keywords. Use keywords that best describe your topic. Use search limiters such as putting "quotes around phrases" to search for exact strings of words or phrases. Try synonyms or official terms for your keywords as well. Then let Primo help you to narrow the results by using the limiters in the left side column.

Another way to improve your results would be to conduct an "Advanced Search" and search by keywords, titles, authors, etc.

Primo searches so much information that you will often get way too many results. Using the advanced search and the filtering features of Primo help you be more specific and focus your results.

Using the Advanced Search lets you be more specific with your search. For example, you can tell Primo to look for the author "Sally Smith", by using quotes around the phrase you will just search for records with the exact phrase of "Sally Smith," not for all records that contain the words Sally and Smith. Also, by changing the drop-down menu to author instead of all fields you can focus your search on materials by "Sally Smith" rather than about "Sally Smith".

Should I use Primo, the Classic catalog or the Journal finder?

It depends on what you are looking for.

P rimo is a search engine that searches everything in the catalog plus articles (scholarly and non-scholarly) from the library databases and some digital collections. Primo is great for exploring topics. It excels at keyword searches and a provides a more comprehensive view of all the types of information that are accessible to you.

The Journal finder is the inventory of the journals (print and online) that Canisius subscribes to. The journal records contain the links to the databases that give us access to the journal and the dates available. If you are looking to search for a specific journal title then you would want to use the Journal finder.

What is Being Searched? Contents of Primo
Primo searches the books, ebooks, scholarly articles, newspaper articles, trade journal articles, magazine articles, video content, conference proceedings, governmental reports, and digital collections that Canisius owns or subscribes to.

Relevance Ranking: How It Works
Primo uses relevance ranking when organizing a result list. This algorithm is similar to that uses by search engines as it attempts to identify the most useful results based on your search and put them at the top of your result list. The relevancy rank considers many points to determine result order including: matches to your keywords, date of item, term frequency, content type, if it is scholarly/peer-reviewed, and location of keywords in prominent places such as the title or subject heading of an item.

For example: content types of matching results are analyzed (journals, books, newspaper articles, dates of publication, etc.), rewarding records that are more recent, or published in a scholarly or peer-reviewed journal.

Can't Find a Book or Article in Primo: What Do I Do?
Try the following:

Limit your results in the left column by content type (books or articles).
Use Advanced Search to look for specific information about the book such as the author's last name or words in the title.
For articles, try the Journals by Title search or a specific database
Use Interlibrary loan (ILL) to request the item you need
Ask a librarian for assistance

The Full-Text Link Didn't Work: What Do I Do?

There are many possible reasons that a full-text link does not work, including:

Error in the citation.
There is no full-text version of the item available online.
Canisius does not have a subscription to the online version of the journal.
Problem with the url

If this happens, try searching for the journal through the Journals by Title search. If we have access to the journal the title will appear in the search results. Follow the link to access the e-journal directly; from there you can manually enter the citation information.

If Canisius does not have a subscription to the journal, you may request a copy of the article through Interlibrary Loan.

Report Problems
Should you encounter a problem with Primo, such as a link to a source not working or a database asking for a login, please report this to us <libweb@canisius.edu> so that we can troubleshoot the problem. Thank you for your help with this.

adapted from Syracuse University Libraries FAQ

Searching the library catalog: Some basics

Catalog Search: Sample Results

Finding Books and Articles