At the start of the spring semester in January 2026, students and faculty will notice a cleaner modern interface in the University Libraries’ online catalog and discovery tool, making it easier to search collections and databases.
Andrew Pederson, assistant professor and systems librarian, says the upgrade to the Primo interface conforms more rigorously to accessibility standards.
“On the back end, there is a framework upgrade that makes everything run faster and better,” said Pederson, who is leading the project.
Ex Libris, the developer of the discovery tool, did extensive usability testing with user groups leading to upgrades such less reduced visual clutter and a persistent search bar.
This initial upgrade will also pave the way for future AI features including natural language searching and a generative AI research assistant that uses academic resources from the Libraries’ catalog.
Pederson and Janel Simons, assistant professor of practice and humanities librarian, ran focus groups of Nebraska students to learn about their perceptions of the discovery tool’s AI research assistant. While the research is still in progress, early observations indicate that students are eager to try AI tools that utilize academic resources.
Pederson says the upgrade will be a seamless process and is not anticipating any downtime for users.
