Using Queries, Alerts, and RSS Feeds

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This section contains topics associated with search queries.

What is a Query?

A query is a word or phrase you specify in the search panel to request information. You can do the following with queries:

View the current session's queries and results.
Save a query from the current session in order to use it later.
Activate alerts on your saved queries to have them run automatically at scheduled times to provide you with updated results from queries.
Activate RSS feeds to receive updates for your favorite queries. For more information, see Activating RSS Feeds.

Viewing and Saving Queries

If you are signed in, you can save a query by clicking the Save query link, which appears below the facets on the Brief Results page. You can access your saved and session queries by clicking either the e-Shelf or My Account link and then clicking the My Queries tab.

My Queries Tab - This Session’s Queries

This tab contains the following folders:

This Session's Queries – this folder lists all of the queries that you have performed in the current session.
Saved Queries & Alerts – this folder lists all of the queries and alerts that you have saved.

If you are not signed in, your queries are available only during the current session.

You can run a saved query yourself, or you can set it as an alert that runs automatically at scheduled times and sends you new results by e-mail.

What is an Alert?

An alert is a process that runs your query automatically at scheduled times and sends you new results via e-mail.

Viewing and Activating Alerts

To view the list of alerts, click the Saved Queries & Alerts menu. To configure an alert for a saved query, click the Update link for that query and then specify the alert settings.

Activating RSS Feeds

Syndicated content, otherwise known as Really Simple Syndication (RSS), is a popular way to distribute information from Web sites. For example, using RSS, a news site or a blog can automatically feed its news articles or entries to a group of subscribers.

RSS feeds in Primo are used to notify you of new or updated items found by the query. RSS feeds can be activated from either the search results or the Saved Queries & Alerts folder on the My Queries tab. All that you need is to have an RSS reader installed on your computer.

If your browser supports RSS, click the rss link, which appears either above or below the facets. A window from which you can subscribe to the RSS feeds opens. Follow the instructions in the window.

If your browser does not support RSS, click the rss link, copy the URL, and paste it into the RSS reader.

Because records returned from EBSCO and WorldCat deep searches do not have a unique ID, you will not be able to view the details for these records in RSS feeds.