Systematically Disadvantaged: How Primo Discovery Fails Non-English Students and What We Can Do About It

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Our annual event is held in a hybrid format, with most sessions accessible both to on-site attendees and to those joining via Zoom.

Systematically Disadvantaged: How Primo Discovery Fails Non-English Students and What We Can Do About It

Monday, October 19, 2026 at 2:10 PM–2:40 PM CST

Michalangeo

Event part

Abstract

Library discovery systems are built on English-language metadata and interaction paradigms—and this session argues that the consequences are not neutral. Drawing on a qualitative usability study and Primo Analytics from Oregon State University, we demonstrate a consistent pattern: non-English students bypass Primo's search interface, arriving via external engines rather than Primo's own discovery layer. Analytics shows cn.bing.com (Chinese-language Bing) driving direct known-item access to records, while zero-result analysis identifies non-Latin-script queries failing at a measurable rate. Together, these findings expose a structural gap: Primo functions as a fulltext delivery tool for multilingual users rather than a discovery engine. The session concludes with practical interventions: Primo configuration strategies, multilingual query assistance, and an AI-augmented approach to bridging user intent and English-language metadata.

IGeLU 2026

October 19–22, 2026

Taipei