Using your Library

The Library at /library holds every paper, book and web page you have saved. It used to be called Sources, and old /sources links still take you there. In the editor, the side panel that lists the sources a draft uses is still called Sources.

The list

Each row shows a paper's title, authors and year, how much text Folio has for it, and your reading status. Click a row to open the paper's page. Each row also has a Copy citation button and a More actions menu with Copy reference, Copy in-text citation, Add to…, the reading statuses and Move to trash.

While your Library holds fewer than ten papers, the Add a source field sits at the top of the page. From ten papers on, the page adds a search box, Filter, Sort and the views below, and the Add source button opens the field. In a smaller Library the views appear as soon as there is somewhere to go (a collection, copies to merge, or a paper one of your drafts cites), showing All and the views that have something in them. On the All view, Continue reading shows up to three papers you are reading, each with the page you got to.

Views

• All: every paper in your Library.
• To read and Reading: papers by reading status.
• Needs attention: papers that were retracted, have an expression of concern or a correction, or whose record differs from Crossref, and papers saved twice. See Needs attention and duplicates.
• Collections: your collections, with their tools.
• Drafts: each of your drafts with the papers from your Library it cites, and Open draft.

The Trash is in the Library's More actions menu.

Reading status

A paper is To read, Reading or Read. It moves to Reading by itself when you go past its first page. Change it from the status button on the paper's page, a row's More actions menu, Reading status when several rows are selected, or R on a focused row (which steps through the three).

Search, filter and sort

Type in Search your Library (or press /). It matches titles, authors, journal, abstract, your notes, tags and the full text as you type. When the match is in a paper's text, the row shows the sentence and its page, and opening the row opens the paper at that page.

A query of five words or more also searches by meaning, so a sentence finds the passage that says the same thing in other words. Press Enter to search a shorter query by meaning too. There is no switch to set. Searching by meaning has an hourly allowance; when it is used up, search still answers from the words alone.

Filter narrows the list by Type, Reading status, Text (full text, abstract only or citation only), Collections and Years. Each active filter shows as a chip you can remove, or choose Clear all. Sort orders by Recent, Title, Author or Year, and Reverse the order flips it. Filters and sort live in the page address, so a reload or a shared link keeps them.

Select several papers

Tick a row's checkbox, press X on a focused row, Shift-click to select a range, or press Ctrl/Cmd + A for every paper in view. On a phone, press and hold a row. A bar appears with:

• Add to…: put the papers in a collection, or create one.
• Reading status: set it for all of them.
• Copy citations: copies the references in your citation style.
• Compare: ask the papers the same questions side by side (two or more papers). See Comparing papers side by side.
• Export: download BibTeX, RIS or CSL-JSON, or an Annotated bibliography built from your own notes (notes written by AI are left out).
• Move to trash.

Select all selects every paper in the current view. To export the whole view without selecting, use More actions on the Library page.

Collections

Collections are the Library's way to group papers. Use Add to… on a row or a selection, or, on a paper's About tab, its collection chips and the Add to a new collection box. The Collections view lets you create, open, rename and delete them, compare a collection's papers, Check references against Crossref and OpenAlex, and start a Radar agent from one. Papers you save in bulk from Search land in a collection named after your query, and papers from Research & start in Cold-start. Keywords a paper came with, from an import for example, show on its About tab and are matched by search. See Collections and tags in your Library.

Needs attention and duplicates

Rows in Needs attention carry a flag that says why: Retracted, Expression of concern, Correction issued, Record differs or Duplicate. Open a paper to read the notice or compare its record with Crossref.

Papers saved twice are grouped at the top of the view. Merge keeps one copy (the one with the PDF, if there is one) and moves notes, highlights and collections to it. Citations to either copy keep working.

Trash and Undo

Move to trash never asks first. Instead, the message that confirms it has Undo. To see what you trashed, choose Trash in the Library's More actions menu. There you can Restore a paper, Restore all, Delete forever or Empty Trash; those last two ask first, because a paper's PDF, highlights and notes go with it. Papers in the Trash are deleted for good after 30 days.

Keyboard

Press ? or Ctrl/Cmd + / on the Library to see every shortcut. Single keys work only when you're not typing in a box, and you can turn them off with Single-key shortcuts in More actions. With them off, ? does nothing either, and Ctrl/Cmd + / still opens the list.

A paper's page

Every paper has its own page at /library/ followed by its ID. At the top:

• Copy citation copies the reference in one click, with its formatting, in your citation style. The arrow beside it (Citation options) has Copy reference, Copy in-text citation and the list of styles to copy in.
• Cite in and your draft's name appear once you have a draft. It opens the draft you worked in last, however long ago, with this paper ready in its Sources panel, as W does in the list. With no draft yet, More actions offers Start a draft with this source instead.
• When you opened the paper from the list, its position (for example 3 of 40) sits beside the back link, with Previous source and Next source buttons, so you can work down the list.
• More actions also has Open the original, Compare with Crossref (for a paper with a DOI), Follow papers that cite this (a DOI is needed; Fellow and Chair), Single-key shortcuts and Move to trash.

Under the title, the trust line says what was checked about the paper: Record matches Crossref or Record differs from Crossref (click it to compare), No retraction found, checked with the date, and how much text Folio has, such as Full text, 12 pages or Abstract only. Folio rechecks papers with a DOI for retractions every week.

If a paper was retracted or has an expression of concern, a banner across the top says so and links to the notice (View notice). If any of your documents cite the paper, the banner says how many.

The reader

The paper opens beside its tabs, at the page where you left off. Switch between Page (the PDF, where you can highlight, add notes and draw; see Highlighting, notes, and drawing on a PDF) and Text (the text Folio read, with its page numbers).

When Folio has no text yet, the reader says it is looking for the full text, then whether it found one. Choose Upload the PDF, or drop the PDF on the reader. If your university library gives you access, Open through my library opens the paper through your library's link prefix, which Folio remembers.

Find in this paper (the search button, or Ctrl/Cmd + F) finds words as you type; press Enter to find a sentence by meaning. Choosing a result opens the paper at its page.

The tabs

• About: the abstract, Cited in (your drafts that cite the paper), the Record you can edit, Filed under (the paper's collections, a box to add it to a new one, and any keywords it came with), Papers around this one (Cited by, References and Related, free on every plan) and In your library (papers you already have near this one).
• Your notes: your Personal notes, saved as you type, and every highlight you made, with its page. Click a highlight to go to it.
• Scholar: AI that helps you read this paper: Key points and questions answered from its text, each tied to a sentence and page. See Using Scholar AI to read your sources.

On a phone, a bar at the bottom switches between Read, Ask and Cite.

Keys on a paper's page

Next steps

• Adding sources to your Library
• Comparing papers side by side
• Using Scholar AI to read your sources
• Collections and tags in your Library
• Highlighting, notes, and drawing on a PDF