Primo is the SAE Library search and discovery tool, the gateway to a wealth of scholarly content like books, ebooks, journal & magazine articles, conference papers, and more. 

Begin your search from the SAE Library homepage.

Go through your results, apply search filters or select New Search to start again.

These basic search tips will help you get started in Primo:

• Searching for a particular known resource? Try entering just the title instead of using the full citation.
• Simple search defaults to searching all types of sources. Filter by selecting books or articles to narrow your results.
• Leave out punctuation.
• If you are searching for a particular topic, put in the most relevant words first.
• When using Boolean operators, remember to capitalise AND, OR & NOT.
• Check your spelling!
• Use individual Library A-Z Databases & Eresources to find more specific discipline-related content.

Search operators are combinations of words and symbols that refine your search results. You can combine search terms with the Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT to broaden or narrow your results. Boolean operators are used to link your keywords to give you greater control over the number of records you find. They must be written in UPPER CASE so they are not treated as keywords.

See more information on how to use Boolean Operators here.

The Advanced Search option in Primo offers many features for making your searches more precise to get results that are more relevant and useful. 

• Field selector – For each search line, this parameter allows you to narrow the search to all search fields or a particular field (such as title, author, or subject).
• Search type – For each search line, this parameter indicates how your search terms are compared against the search field. You can choose from the following options:
  • contains - Returns results that contain all words in the phrase, but the words may be in a different order and may not be as close together.
  • contains exact phrase - Returns results that contain phrases that exactly match the phrases specified in the query.
  • starts with – Returns results that contain words that start with the specified string of words. 
• Boolean Operators – As with basic searches, you can include the AND, OR, and NOT operators between words and phrases in each search line. In addition, the Operator drop-down list allows you to select the operation that is used between search lines.
• Add a New Line – Advanced searches allow you to include a maximum of seven search criteria lines, which contain the following parameters: operator, field selector, search type, and search box.
• Filters – Filters allow you to narrow your results to specific material type, language or date range. In the search results, you can include and exclude facets to filter your results further.