ProQuest, Annual Report, etc

a)
ProQuest has a new interface, and LOUIS in the process of changing it over. As soon as the new links are confirmed, I'll add it to the site.

The new interface is already set up to appear in our catalog and EBSCO A to Z.

b)
A new Annual Report of the library is out, and I've added that to the site (library, reference, and gov docs. It's in the footer of all of those). Like others before it, it is a scan and the text can't be read by screen readers or searched. I'd like to try and fix that.

To limit confusion about what year it is on various web pages, I've changed the foot to only say "Annual Report" without a year, and made a copy named "ULAR-current.pdf" which will always be the most current version of the file if it's updated by me later. That way, only changing that one file changes them all.
I made a post about the new report to the library blog, but didn't put it on the home page as there are other pertinent things already taking up room there.

EDIT: I also asked someone at the Computing Center to update it on the Ask-a-librarian form, since I don't control that, and it was updated promptly:
https://webservices.ulm.edu/wsforms/library_ask.php

c)
I found a strange error in an EBSCO database, Nursing Reference Center, that only appears under certain circumstances. It's not happening on the link we have been using, but there's different version of this link, which is supposed to be the right one, that doesn't work right off-campus. Here's what I said about it in an email with CH:

While communicating with EBSCO support on a separate issue, the representative gave me a link to a page showing what correct direct database links. However, one of them doesn't work because of a problem with the LOUIS branding image.

If I enter the Nursing Reference Center off-campus through this URL:
http://atoz.ebsco.com/link.asp?id=1412&rid=1519770
It looks like this:
http://www.ulm.edu/reference/louis-vs-nrc-normal.jpg

But if I enter the Nursing Reference Center off-campus through this URL:
http://ezproxy.louislibraries.org:2048/login?url=http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?authtype=ip,url,uid&profile=nrc
It looks like this:
http://www.ulm.edu/reference/louis-vs-nrc.jpg

d)
We may soon starting the process to integrate the ULM and LOUIS EZ Proxies. I think that we might want to talk about customizing the log in page again as soon as I can figure out how the page is actually generated, and what is possible.

URLs and eBooks fracas

On Friday I realized that the EBSCO eBooks really weeren't working off-campus at all, but would work if you entered EBSCOhost from the ULM EZ Proxy and then chose it as a database-- It was a complicated process. So I changed the links and made and uploaded and video and image instructions for that on Friday so that the books would be available.

On Mon. morning, EBSCO support gave me the working link to the eBooks, as well as a better link for the Nursing Reference Center, which I have never been able to get working off-campus. If it works, I'll put it on the site. So I took down the instructions I had made on Friday.

I suspect that moving to the ULM EZ Proxy would help. Or I hope it would.

Also updated was the library floor plan; do let me know if I missed anything.
http://www.ulm.edu/library/mappage.html

Various changes...

This weekend and today I...

• adjusted the new Fall hours
• Added a bit to the FAQ about EBSCO eBooks: http://www.ulm.edu/library/FAQ.html#ebsco-ebooks
• added news about the extended hours to the blog and home page
• posted the new Special Collections newsletter to the home page and blog
• Shortened the FAQ bit about ILL to a link to the ILL page, which has tutorials
• Added links to the latest Special Collections newsletters to the archives pages
• Added "International Business" to the subject guides and edited my other guides
  

As for the consolidation of the all the EZ Proxy from LOUIS to our server, I will ask about that next week. The log-in itself will be the same but the custom page we will get will change.

Do let me know of any problems.

Hours & OED

I changed the hours to show intersession and added a news post about the return of the OED. I will put the OED link throughout the site after I return to the office.

August 16th edit:
I 've since then added the OED to the site by looking at an older backup of the site when we still had the OED and putting it back in the pages it used to be on.

Also, the Fall 2011 schedule is ready and shows the new weekend hours. I'll announce it as news and print it out after it is confirmed to be correct.
http://www.ulm.edu/library/hours.pdf

New access to databases

I've added the new links to the site for the databases that now work on-campus, and made a blog news post about it.
Do let me know of any problems you encounter.

For ARTSTOR and NetLibrary, I've eliminated all mention of needing to create accounts. That was confusing for patrons before, and NetLibrary's integration inot EBSCOhost is likely going to destroy all those accounts anyway.

As for LearningExpress Library, I believe it still needs an account made on campus because that's a LOUIS resource, and those haven't been changed (yet).

EZ Proxy: better than ever

The problems with SciFinder's EZ Proxy connection has apparently been fixed! but that's not all that it did!

Here is a video showing a successful off campus log-in to SciFinder, 23 MB:
http://www.ulm.edu/reference/scifinder-SUCCESS!.zip
My first try in SciFinder gave me an error message, but I tried it again and then it worked. I did not need to change the URL on the web page to get in.

I'm very, very pleased with the results, for the change has not only fixed access to SciFinder, but has fixed access for several other databases we were having problems with for a long time, even before the Computing Center became directly involved in library operations (2009?). Classical Music Library, for instance, stopped working off-campus after they upgraded their interface. With the addition of SSL, they work now.

ACM
ARTSTOR (only works off-campus with on-campus account creation at this time, but worked in the proxy w/o an account. You can still use accounts to access personal customizations)
BioOne
Classical Music Library
NetLibrary (only works off-campus with on-campus account creation at this time, but worked in the proxy w/o an account. You can still use accounts to access personal customizations)

I also did run-down of all the databases we have to see if the SSL change affected them. It seems to be OK, but access to Datamonitor 360 is a little goofy. It at first didn't work, but then I tried something else and it did work. Maybe it was a "hiccup" but I'll look at it again today. RIA Tax Services is meant to be a on-campus creation only for off-campus sort of database. I left it alone for now, but I'll look into it again later.

And he is a complete set of all the videos I recorded while looking at various aspects of the databases. It's 486 MB (!). The videos are long because in most of them I tried to do a quick search and actually view a document-- sometimes it looks like you're logged in, but you're really not and you run into a paywall when you try to see full text. The file names inside indicate what they are about.
http://www.ulm.edu/reference/july14-2011-dbtests.zip

It's not exiting to watch and I made it so that I don't have to rely on memory, so here's a list of the important things learned:
· Changing the URL links themselves from "http" to "httpS" causes them to not work at all. So we won't need to change them to "https"
· I now have working URLs for the newly enabled databases
· Some databases listed in the https://ezproxy.ulm.edu pages don't actually allow access to documents (???)

Next steps:

• Putting up new off-campus links for the resources that work off-campus (I'll do that later today)
  
• consolidating EZ Proxy so that all the DBs work on one connection, and getting a customized log-in page with log-in instructions...
• figuring out what other resources should be working off-campus and fixing them to do that

LOUIS, AccessScience, EZ Proxy

a)
Today I added the AccessScience Database trial to the home page news and blog

b)
I've update the ULM library LOUIS page to show Sara Zimmerman's statement about it:
http://www.ulm.edu/library/louis/

c)
Since it's been a while and some good things have happened, I've asked LOUIS if it's OK to remove the database "intercept" pages. The answer was yes, so I'm now going to take them all down. I doubt that anyone bookmarked them, but in case they did and they ask you "why won't this link work?"just tell them we didn't need the intercept anymore.

The LOUIS logo has been added to the database pages so that LOUIS' branding is where it deserves to be.

d)
We're getting closer to solving the EZ Proxy problem with SciFinder (I hope). The connection needed to be a secure SSL connection, and we need a "certificate" to do that. Getting on should allow the connection to work.

However, the old "michael1" server it used to work on wasn't secure either. We don't know why it ever worked, although I believe that it did.