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).
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
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:
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
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
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.
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.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Hours + LOUIS logo
This weekend I changed the hours to show the 4th of July closing, and now I'm changing it back to normal.
With DS's approval, I've also asked RG and Uni. Relations if it's all right to add the LOUIS logo to the website's DB pages. It's one of those demo pages I showed the ULMLWPC some time ago:
http://ulm.edu/~niemla/louis-test/dbname.html
The SciFinder EZ Proxy problems still haven't been resolved, and I don't know when they will be.
With DS's approval, I've also asked RG and Uni. Relations if it's all right to add the LOUIS logo to the website's DB pages. It's one of those demo pages I showed the ULMLWPC some time ago:
http://ulm.edu/~niemla/louis-test/dbname.html
The SciFinder EZ Proxy problems still haven't been resolved, and I don't know when they will be.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
College Source maybe + EZ Proxy
Today DS told me that College Source is back and to put it back on the website. I did, and it working earlier today, but now it's not working. I'm not sure why.
Also, the computing center is now in talks with OCLC to try to fix the SciFinder database problem.
Also, the computing center is now in talks with OCLC to try to fix the SciFinder database problem.
Friday, June 10, 2011
ILL page + new databases + EZ Proxy
a)
MW brought it to my attention that the latest upgrade of Iliad also included a re-design. I'm delighted to see that, because the ILL interface has looked very 1994 for a long time and I often wished it was better. However, that also means that our tutorial pictures are outdated.
I've been considering doing video for the ILL page before, but now that it really needs to be changed, I made some today and put them on the library YouTube to embed them:
http://www.ulm.edu/library/ill.html
ML and MW and I all agree that having pictures on the page as well would be a good idea. Those will be added before the end of today, if not this afternoon.
b)
2 new databases for business (or other things, if you think it's pertinent):
Datamonitor 360
Datamonitor Product Launch Analytics
Product Launch analytics is working great, but the URL for DM 360 looks strange. But as long as it does work, it's the one we'll use.
c)
EZ Proxy is being difficult in general, but SciFinder in particular is giving us trouble about IP addresses, while other DBs seem to have little trouble with the new Proxy. Troubleshooting it has been hard because we can't tell if it's us, LOUIS, OCLC, or SciFinder having the problem or all of these things at once.
I could go on and on, but it's all rather technical.
But as I see it, EZ Proxy has been temperamental for a long time, and it's worth the trouble to get it under control.
MW brought it to my attention that the latest upgrade of Iliad also included a re-design. I'm delighted to see that, because the ILL interface has looked very 1994 for a long time and I often wished it was better. However, that also means that our tutorial pictures are outdated.
I've been considering doing video for the ILL page before, but now that it really needs to be changed, I made some today and put them on the library YouTube to embed them:
http://www.ulm.edu/library/ill.html
ML and MW and I all agree that having pictures on the page as well would be a good idea. Those will be added before the end of today, if not this afternoon.
b)
2 new databases for business (or other things, if you think it's pertinent):
Datamonitor 360
Datamonitor Product Launch Analytics
Product Launch analytics is working great, but the URL for DM 360 looks strange. But as long as it does work, it's the one we'll use.
c)
EZ Proxy is being difficult in general, but SciFinder in particular is giving us trouble about IP addresses, while other DBs seem to have little trouble with the new Proxy. Troubleshooting it has been hard because we can't tell if it's us, LOUIS, OCLC, or SciFinder having the problem or all of these things at once.
I could go on and on, but it's all rather technical.
But as I see it, EZ Proxy has been temperamental for a long time, and it's worth the trouble to get it under control.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
hours + EZ Proxy
The summer hours are now up, since the summer schedule begins on June 8th.
We are also experiencing problems with EZ Proxy, so we will investigate that more.
We are also experiencing problems with EZ Proxy, so we will investigate that more.
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