Author: Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

Extra guidance added to Single Sign On error response

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

FOLLOWING RECENT SECURITY enhancements to the configuration of NTU’s Single Sign On environment (which enables staff and students to log in to online resources using their university username and password), library customers are more likely to occasionally encounter a ‘stale request’ error.

This error can occur for a number of reasons, but its most frequent cause is that some of the session information stored in the user’s web browser has timed out, and is therefore no longer acceptable to the SSO system. The most effective and reliable solution to the problem is to clear the cache on the requesting browser and then sign in afresh.

The ‘stale request’ error has been generating regular service queries for library teams from staff and students, who are understandably unsure what the error means or how to resolve it.

The ‘out of the box’ error response in the SSO system provides no next-step guidance.

Working with colleagues in Digital Technologies, the library has now been able to arrange the deployment of a customised error response in the SSO environment, which returns a more meaningful message and which includes links to online guidance on cache clearing and further support. (As the SSO system supports authenticated access to a wide range of university applications and systems, it’s appropriate for the main Service Desk to triage any service calls which might arise.)

The new response message will appear in the browser as in the screenshot below:

The text of the new response message is as follows:

Authentication error: please clear your browser cache!

A technical problem has occurred which is causing your login request to this resource to be rejected.

To ensure that you’re able to authenticate successfully, you’ll first need to clear the sign-in data cached by your browser before trying again to access this resource.

The Digital Technologies team at Nottingham Trent University provide an up-to-date walkthrough which explains how to clear the cache of all the most popular browsers. Follow the simple steps in the How to clear your Cache on iPad, PC and Mac guide.

If the problem persists after clearing your cache, please contact support@ntu.ac.uk, with details of your device, browser and the resource you are trying to access.

Access restored to JISC journals and book archives

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

ACCESS TO ONLINE archives of journal and book content provided by JISC has been restored following a brief interruption in service.

All the affected resources are now accessible once again, using a university username and password.

Outage notifications have been removed from the Find Databases listings for these resources, and access URLs updated.

Temporary loss of access to JISC journals and book archives

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

ACCESS TO SEVERAL subscription-based archives of journal and book content provided by JISC, will be reinstated shortly, after a brief interruption in service.

Attempts to log in to these services, using a university username and password, are currently returning errors and authenticated access is not available.

The affected services are:

Notifications alerting users to the temporary loss of access have been added to the Find Databases listing of each of these resources.

A further update will follow once access is confirmed as fully reinstated.

WGSN: move to Single Sign-on now live

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures
WGSN - March - 2016

AUTHENTICATED ACCESS TO WGSN (the World Global Style Network) is now by university username and password.

On-campus and off-campus access URLs have been updated on the WGSN Find Databases listing.

The move to Single Sign On (SSO), advance notice of which was shared on 17 March, replaces the need for staff and students to register and maintain individual accounts, and to remember personally created WGSN credentials. SSO based accounts at WGSN will not expire, as long as the student’s or staff member’s NTU account remains active.

As part of the migration process, all existing personalised settings on WGSN have been moved over to the new Single Sign On environment. This means that no manual intervention is required to ensure account continuity.

WGSN access moves to Single Sign On

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures
WGSN - March - 2016

FROM 29 MARCH 2023, authenticated access to WGSN (the World Global Style Network) will be by university username and password.

The move to Single Sign On (SSO) will replace the need for staff and students to register and maintain individual accounts, and to remember personally created WGSN credentials.

The migration to SSO for WGSN will take place at around 14:00 on 29 March 2023, at which point the access details on the Find Databases listing for WGSN will be updated. The move will not involve any downtime and, up until the point of switchover, NTU staff and students will be able to continue using their existing WGSN account credentials.

As part of the migration process, all existing personalised settings on WGSN will be moved over to the new Single Sign On environment. This means that no manual intervention will be required to ensure account continuity.

The move to SSO for WGSN will make for a far better user experience of the service, and resolve the problems caused by personal account expiry and forgotten password information.

Completed: withdrawal of access to the legacy version of RefWorks

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

AUTHENTICATED ACCESS TO the legacy version of RefWorks (v2) is no longer available to staff and students at Nottingham Trent University, following the removal of NTU from the drop-down list of Shibboleth sites on the legacy platform.

This means that LLR is now only supporting the current (and far superior) version of RefWorks (v3).

This withdrawal process has taken far longer than intended due to delays by ProQuest in completing the necessary technical work.

Since the launch of RefWorks v3, LLR had been supporting both the new and the legacy versions, to allow sufficient time for users of the legacy version to complete existing research activities without needing to migrate mid-project.

Library support for both versions had been in place for several years. Throughout that time new staff and students had been encouraged by the library to create accounts in RefWorks v3, and the LTT has provided training exclusively for the much-improved new version.

However, a minority of existing v2 users had continued to regularly log in to the legacy version of RefWorks, and a small number of new v2 accounts had been created.

The library has contacted all v2 RefWorks users that have been active on the platform in the past twelve months, offering support and guidance about how to migrate to RefWorks v3. Many have completed the migration to the new platform following this advice.

If any staff member or student contacts the library to report that they need access to references held in their legacy RefWorks account, LLR can – even now – assist them with the migration process. In any such cases, a Dynamics ticket should be raised for the attention of the ATS team, with details of the individual concerned.

ProQuest will decommission the legacy version of RefWorks entirely on 30 June 2023.

New resource: OverDrive

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

ACCESS TO A growing collection of eBook, audiobook and magazine content is now available to Nottingham Trent University students and staff through the OverDrive platform.

Rather than traditional academic disciplines, materials made available via OverDrive instead focus on well-being, self-help and resilience, and leisure and recreational reading. The Magazine Collection, to which LLR has subscribed, additionally provides access to full electronic versions of thousands of newsstand titles, grouped into themes such as: Celebrity; Entertainment; Cooking & Food; Home & Garden and Politics and Current Affairs.

Accessing OverDrive content

Access to OverDrive materials is through the OverDrive web site and also through the Libby app (available for Android and iOS devices).

Authentication to OverDrive content is by university username and password. NTU staff and students need to register an OverDrive ‘library card’ which then entitles them to ‘borrow’ eBooks and audiobooks from the platform (up to 30 at any one time, for an initial seven day loan period). Once registered, the loaning of magazine issues is unlimited.

Because the way that OverDrive provisions electronic material is different to the normal academic publisher model, LLR is providing an illustrated walkthrough guide to: how to register an OverDrive ‘library card’; how to loan, renew and return items; and how to place holds, through both the OverDrive web site and Libby app.

Discovering OverDrive content

New entries for the main OverDrive platform and for the OverDrive Magazine Collection have been added to the Find Databases service.

Individual titles from LLR’s OverDrive subscription are also discoverable through Library OneSearch and Library OneSearch Pro, including:

New content purchased by LLR will also be immediately discoverable on both the OverDrive platform and through the Libby app.

New resource: Archive of the British Association for the Advancement of Science

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures
Archive of the British Association for the Advancement of Science

A NEW LISTING for the Archive of the British Association for the Advancement of Science has been added to the Find Databases service.

Materials in the collection cover the period 1830s to the 1970s, and the archive is described as follows:

The archive of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) and connected collections from UK universities. The archive covers the subject areas of astronomy, biology, technology, industrial design, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, agriculture, meteorology, physics, history of science and STEM, and government grants for scientific research. It brings together administrative records, correspondence, illustrations, manuscripts, photographs, prototypes, clippings, personal papers and grey literature.

Access to the resource is by university username and password.

The collections is licenced for use by UK HEIs through an agreement with JISC which currently concludes on 31 December 2031.

New resource: Subculture Archives

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures
Detail from a collage of photographs, flyers and tickets compiled from the Subculture Archives

ACCESS TO THE Subculture Archives is now available through a new listing in the library’s Find Databases service.

The resource is described as follows:

A multimedia archive of primary sources exploring 100 years of youth culture through the scenes, styles, sounds and signifiers of different youth movements. The Subculture Archives contains images and photographs; recorded and transcribed oral histories, podcasts and playlists; flyers and ephemera; and many examples of fashion, graphic design and printed publications. Drawing on the work of The Subcultures Network of academic researchers, the archive also includes lectures, articles, videos and other research materials.

Authenticated access to the resource is by university username and password.

The resource appears as a ‘Recommended Database’ in Library OneSearch and Library OneSearch Pro when running searches for terms such as ‘counterculture’, ‘subculture’, ‘youth culture’, ‘punk’, ‘hippy’, ‘acid house’ and other related terms.

A subscription to the Subcultures Archives has been paid for by the Nottingham School of Art & Design. The first subscription year runs until 17 January 2024.

New resource: The Literary Encyclopedia

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures
The Literary Encyclopedia logo

A NEW LISTING for The Literary Encyclopedia has been added to the Find Databases service.

The resource was previous only discoverable as an ejournal. In its new database listing, the encyclopedia is described as follows:

The Literary Encyclopedia is a wide-ranging reference work focused on literary and cultural history. The encyclopedia includes biographies of major and minor writers; scholarly descriptions of these authors’ texts; and reflective and analytical essays on literary, cultural and historical matters. It aims to cover the full breath of world literature including English, American, German, Russian, Italian, French, and Classical literatures, and a growing body of material covering Hispanic, Japanese, Canadian, East European and various postcolonial literatures.

Access to the resource is by university username and password, on-campus and off-campus.

i-law platform registration changes

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures
i-law.com logo

ACCESS ARRANGEMENTS FOR the twelve titles that the library subscribes to on the i-law platform have been updated in Library OneSearch and Library OneSearch Pro.

Previously, students and staff members accessing titles such as Construction Law Reporter and Lloyd’s maritime and commercial law quarterly were required to use a secure shared username and password.

Now individual account registration is required on the i-law platform, based on an NTU staff or student email address.

A new library guide (linked to from all twelve subscribed i-law titles available through Library OneSearch) provides an illustrated walkthrough of the account registration process.

Updated and withdrawn free-to-access databases

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures
Image of an update key on a keyboard

FOLLOWING AN AUDIT of the free-to-access resources in the Find Databases service recently completed by the Serials team, several entries have been updated or withdrawn.

Withdrawn resources

Political resources on the Net

This resource has been withdrawn by its publishers and is now only available as a snapshot in the index of the Internet Archive.

Sociological Tour through Cyberspace, A

This resource has been withdrawn by Trinity University and is now only available as a snapshot in the index of the Internet Archive.

Updated resources

JISC Historic Books

The on-campus and off-campus access URLs of the Find Databases listing for this licensed-free-for-HE resource have been updated to reflect a change in the WAYFLess URL format supported by the platform. Authenticated access remains by university username and password.

Keele Guide to Government & Politics on the Internet > British Government and Politics on the Internet

The Keele Guide to Government & Politics on the internet has now become the British Government and Politics on the Internet directory. The title, on-campus and off-campus URLs and Category assignments of the Find Databases listing for this resource have been updated accordingly.

Linguist List, The

The on-campus and off-campus access URLs of the Find Databases listing for this resource have been updated to reflect the reorganisation and relaunch of the site.

Marx and Engels’ Writings > Marx Engels Archive

The Marx and Engels’ Writings site is no longer active and is now only available as a snapshot in the index of the Internet Archive. The resource has therefore been replaced by the Marx Engels Archive which provides much of the same searchable full-text material.

NDAD (National Digital Archive of Datasets)

Both on-campus and off-campus access URLs of the Find Database listing for this resource have been updated to reflect the fact that the NDAD has now been incorporated in the main National Archives platform.

Supreme Court Applications

The on-campus and off-campus access URLs of the Find Databases listing for this resource have been updated following a reorganisation of the (UK) Supreme Court web site.