Library Database and Services Highlight

Posted Mar 05, 2026

AI Learning Opportunity

Curious about the intricacies of the Primo AI interface? Read through this page from Ex Libris. The search works in a few steps, where the tool creates a complex boolean search string out of your natural language query, runs that search in the catalog, re-ranks the top 30 results to try to find items that fit the query best, and selects the top 5 re-ranked results. This process is called Retrieval Augmented Generation, and it’s an add-on to a Large Language Model made to improve the quality of LLM-generated answers. Still imperfect, but better than just an LLM.

If you’re interested in a more detailed breakdown of that process, we’ve attached a six-month review of Primo AI below. A cool tidbit from that article: If you perform a search in Primo AI, then click the “View more results from your library search” icon that appears after the 5 selected articles, then you can see something interesting. In the search bar up top, that’s the search string that the AI tool put together based on your query. You can see what kinds of synonyms and inferences it generates that way in order to understand a bit more about how the tool works and what those results do or don’t deliver based on your needs.

Primo Research Assistant Potential for Enhancing Resource Discovery-compressedDownload


The Reichert Report:

CQ Researcher:   I’m a big fan of this database when I’m working with the debate and argumentation folks. However, it is also great for current event topics. If you get students that need ideas for speeches or projects, this is a great source.

You can browse by subjects, but to browse by dates click “Browse all CQ Researcher” in the middle of the page. Look at this nice variety of topics!

A snapshot of the CQ Researcher tool on the Sage database // Main focus is on the variety of search results possible // Results include reports on "Fintech", "U.S. Nonprofit Challenges", "Political Redistricting", and "AI and Mental Health".

This can be a great resource to help a user generate ideas if they are feeling stuck. The guides, written by one person, are also a depth of information with great overviews of the topic, useful charts, bibliographies, and a valuable pro/con section. Watch the bibliographies as far as how they link to the other sources; you’ll want to go to OneSearch for any books or articles listed. 

Check it out for ideas and resources!