Author: Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

New resource: WikiVet

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

Access to the WikiVet database has been enabled in eSearch. Access is unrestricted on-campus and off-campus, but registration is required on the site. The resource is described as follows:

Access to the WikiVet is free but you will need to register with a valid email address. Registration is free and is available to veterinarians, veterinary students, veterinary nurses and academic staff at veterinary schools in any country

WikiVet is a collaborative initiative between the UK Vet Schools to develop a comprehensive online peer-reviewed knowledge database. It includes in-depth articles on the following subjects: anatomy and physiology; clinical diseases; haematology and immunology; pathology; pharmacology; parasitology. It also contains images and videos to support learning and teaching and revision aids such as quizzes and flashcards.

isurv – off-campus access withdrawn

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

Following a change in the subscription profile provided to Libraries and Learning Resources, off-campus access to isurv service (which was previously available by university username and password) has now been withdrawn from eSearch. Access to isurv is currently available on-campus only.

New resource: FBIS (Foreign Broadcast Information Service) Daily Reports

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

Access to the FBIS (Foreign Broadcast Information Service) Daily Reports database has been activated in eSearch. Access is direct on-campus and by university username and password (using Shibboleth) off-campus. A guide to logging in to FBIS using Shibboleth will be available on the eServices Support wiki shortly. The resource is described as follows:

Covering the period 1974–1996 in the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Eastern Europe, the JISC selection of the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports includes a wealth of transcripts of broadcasts and news from around the world all translated into the English language.

New resource: CPAG (Child Poverty Action Group) Online Services

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

Access to CPAG (Child Poverty Action Group) Online Services has been enabled in eSearch. Access is by a resource specific username and password (available on the Other Passwords page of the LLR web site). Only one customer is able to access the service at any one time. The resource is described as follows:

CPAG’s Online Services contain comprehensive in-depth information on welfare benefits and tax credits. It includes: up-to-date consolidated legislation; easy to follow guidance and explanation from CPAG’s Welfare benefits and tax credit handbook; commissioners’ decisions and court cases, many with CPAG commentary

The explanatory text is independent and authoritative, produced by CPAG advisers or by other experienced welfare rights advisers. Information is applicable throughout the UK and is updated through the year.

The username and password required to login to the service can be accessed on the Other Passwords page of the LLR web site.

Please note that only individual can access the the CPAG’s Online Services at any one time. If you see the message ‘Too many user sessions’ when attempting to login, please wait and try again later.

Lexis databases – Shibboleth error resolved

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

The problem preventing Shibboleth based access to the Nexis UK and Lexis Library services was resolved at the end of last week, following extensive and detailed investigations by both colleagues in IS (responsible for the management of the Shibboleth infrastructure) and within Lexis’ technical team. As soon as the issue was confirmed as resolved, all listings in eSearch were updated accordingly.

eBrary eBook access problem – resolved

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

While we have yet to receive final confirmation from eBrary’s technical team that the service issue has been completely resolved, access to eBrary eBook titles through both eSearch and the Library Catalogue is currently available once again.

Gale-Cengage databases – Shibboleth errors resolved

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

The Cengage-Gale technical team have now resolved the problem preventing off-campus access to the InfoTrac databases.

Access to the previously affected InfoTrac databases has now been restored and information in eSearch has been updated to reflect this.

eBrary eBook access problem

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

Access to eBook content on the eBrary platform is currently unavailable, due to a technical problem preventing successful login to the service. Requests to access eBrary from either eSearch or from the Library Catalogue resolve to the following error (after an attempted login).

Your identity provider didn’t return the attributes required to log into eBrary.

We are working with colleagues in IS and in the eBrary technical support team to identify the cause of the problem, and the remedial action required to correct it.

A further update will follow once access has been restored.

Lexis databases – Shibboleth error

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

Due to a technical problem affecting the Lexis Shibboleth service, access to the Nexis UK and Lexis Library services is currently unavailable. Attempts to login to either service in eSearch results in the following error.

Your attempt to sign in to the LexisNexis® services via Federated Access has failed. If you have forgotten your institution ID or password, please contact your institution. If you have entered a valid institution ID and password, please contact Customer Service on +44 845 370 1234. Please make a note of the following error number for the Customer Service representative: 17290A1616.

Full details of the problem have been passed to Lexis’s technical team and to Shibboleth colleagues in IS.

A further update will follow once access has been reinstated.

Gale-Cengage databases – Shibboleth error

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

A problem affecting the Gale-Cengage Shibboleth service is currently preventing off-campus access to the following InfoTrac databases:

* 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection
* 19th Century British Library Newspapers
* British Newspapers 1600-1900
* ECCO (Eighteenth Century Collections Online)
* European Business ASAP
* The Times Digital Archive: 1785-1985

Attempts to select the ‘Shibboleth users click here’ link generate an application error message. A video screengrab of the error can be reviewed here: http://screencast.com/t/ZTQ1YjM4NmM.

On-campus access is unaffected.

A further update will follow once off-campus access to the Gale-Cengage databases has been restored.

Web of Knowledge – service issues

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

MIMAS and Thomson-ISI have acknowledged problems affecting all of the database on the Web of Knowledge platform. Responses times on the platform are intermittently slow, and search terms can at times fail to return a results set. The affected services are:

* Arts & Humanities Citation Index
* Journal Citation Reports
* Science Citation Index
* Social Sciences Citation Index
* Web of Science (with Conference Proceedings)
* Web of Knowledge