Assessing the Quality of the Primo AI Research Asssitant for Use in Library Instruction and Research Consultations

This was presented at the LOEX 2025 conference in Pasadena, CA in May 2025. The presentation discussed a study conducted by a librarian research team at an R1 university that began testing the new Ex Libris Primo AI Research Assistant in 2024. The research team created a framework to assess the quality of results produced by this tool by inputting one year of research assistance queries from undergraduate writing program students and further comparing the output of a basic search to a prompt-engineered approach. Study findings will be presented along with a discussion of how librarians adapted their practice to integrate this AI tool into instruction and consultations.