ART 5284 - Design Theory & Methods

What is Primo?

Primo contains information about and links to most of the UCF Libraries' collection including:

• books,
• ebooks,
• journal and magazine articles,
• newspaper articles,
• dissertations,
• government documents,
• DVDs and streaming videos

It searches across many different subscription databases and is a great tool when searching on a broad topic for papers when you need a handful of sources, including these core sources for art and digital media.

IMPORTANT: Primo does NOT search every library database.  It does NOT have the same search capabilities as going directly to a specific database. For example, these databases have content and search features not available in Primo:

• Art & Architecture Source
• Art Index Retrospective
• Arts & Humanities Citation Index
• ARTstor Digital Library
• Associated Press Images Collection
• Grove Art Online (Oxford Dictionary of Art)

Tips for Searching Primo

• Boolean AND, OR: Use all upper case for Boolean operators.
• * Truncation: Use the asterisk to search for the variation of a word. Example: animat* will retrieve animation, animated, and animators
• " " Phrase: Use quotation marks around a phrase. Example: "digital media"
• Avoid punctuation in searches. Primo often stumbles with - : ; and so forth.
• Use the filters on the left side of the screen to refine search results.

Results List

•   Click “Add to Folder”  icon located to the right of each article title to add a record to the folder so that you can print, email, and save them.
•  Make sure to ‘Sign In’  each time you access Primo to see all the access and request options and to save your folder items. 

Individual Records

• After clicking on an item to see the Detailed record, you will see icons that allow you to print, email, save, cite, or export a citation.
• The CITE icon displays how the article should be cited in various citation styles, including APA.
• You also have the option to send the citation EndNote, RIS, and other citation management tools.
•  You may email, print or save in QuickSearch using links on the right side of the pages.
• If the library does not own the journal you need online, you can Request an electronic copy of the article through Interlibrary Loan:   http://library.ucf.edu/ILL/. Interlibrary Loan is free and is very fast.