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Manage citations with Primo

Who is this guide for?

This guide is for all SUNY Oswego students, staff, and faculty. 

What is Primo?

Primo is the search engine on the library homepage. This guide will walk you through the process of saving your searches, and how to organize them so that you can find them later.

Sign In

You can sign in by clicking the Sign In link in the upper right-hand corner of the page, or by clicking the yellow bar underneath the search box. (The yellow bar will only appear after you've done a search.) 

Then, you'll login with your Laker NetID & password.

Screenshot of library search page with 'Sign In' links circled in red

Save Your Search

When we say "save your search", we're referring to the things you searched for. In the example below, that's the phrase "art therapy", limited to peer-reviewed journal articles.

You can save your search by clicking on the thumbtack and text labeled Save query.

Why would I want to save my search?

Saving your search can be helpful if you haven't had time to review all the search results - this will let you come back to them later.

Students, sometimes your professors will ask for your search terms as part of an assignment.

Screenshot of Primo search results page, with 'Save query' circled in red

Save Search Results

To save specific items from your search, click on the thumbtack icon next to that item. You can do this from the search results page:

Screenshot of Primo search results page with arrows pointing to thumbtack icons

You can also save items from the item details page:

Screenshot of Primo item detail page with thumbtack icon circled in red

Items you've already selected will have a line through the thumbtack icon. (You can click on that to "unsave" the item.)

Organizing Your Saved Items

To organize your saved searches and items, click on the thumbtack icon in the upper right-hand corner of the page (that icon is circled in red in the screenshot).

Screenshot of Primo search screen with thumbtack icon in command bar circled

Next, click on the text that says "Add Labels" (this is labeled 1 in the screenshot below). Then, type in your label name (this is labeled 2 in the screenshot below). If you'd like to add multiple labels, just hit enter after each label.

Screenshot of Primo saved items page with numbers indicating the steps to add labels

You can click on the label names in the right-hand column to view all items with that label.

Screenshot of Primo saved items, with red arrow pointing to a label in the right-hand sidebar

How do I generate citations in Primo?

Citation generators, like the one in Primo, aren't perfect -- so be sure to double-check your citations against a reliable source (like our Citing Sources guide) for accuracy!

In order to generate citations in Primo, click on a search result or saved item. Then click the Citation link. 

Screenshot of item detail page with 'Citation' circled in red

Then, select the citation style you need and click Copy citation to clipboard.  

Screenshot of item detail page, with focus on generated citation

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