O’Reilly – Reference at Newman Library

CUNY Login for O’Reilly Ebooks

As of today, the login scheme for O’Reilly will use the CUNY Login instead of the Baruch username and password. To make this happen, O’Reilly had to create a new URL for us. That URL has been updated in the following places:

records in OneSearch
the database link for O’Reilly on our databases pages

O’Reilly set up a redirect for the old URL so that if anyone happens to have a link to it (such as on Blackboard or an email message), they’ll get pointed to the new URL if they click on that old link. If you encounter any linking problems with O’Reilly, please email me or Mike Waldman.

Service and Policy Updates on the Library Website for Fall 2022

This fall, you’ll want to look on relevant library web pages for the latest policies regarding library services instead of going to a semester-specific post on the library news blog. I am working with lots of different folks to draft those page revisions and will be publishing the updates in the coming days.

One notable change that is already live on the site is that Baruch alumni can now come into our library again. Please note that proof of vaccination status will be required and the protocols of the CUNY visitor policy will apply. See the current Alumni page for details. [NOTE: This policy just changed again. Baruch alumni will not have access this fall.]

Another notable change is that the login page for remote access to databases and licensed content has changed so that all Baruch and CUNY SPS users will enter their CUNY Login. There is no longer an option for those users to enter a Baruch username and password or an SPS-issued username and password. I have updated the Logging in to Library Resources page to reflect this change.

We are nearly done testing the remote login for the O’Reilly database that will also begin using the CUNY Login (remote access has long been handled not through our proxy server but instead a SAML connection). As soon as we make the switch from Baruch username/password to CUNY Login, I’ll post that here on the blog.

If you see any website content that doesn’t accurately reflect how we are currently offering services and resources, please let me know. The next pages to see updates will be the Study Rooms and the Technology Loan Services ones.

What “Time to Complete” Really Means in O’Reilly Ebooks

On the landing page for books on the O’Reilly ebook platform where you see the jacket, author info, publication date, etc., there is a “Time to Complete” section that sometimes confuses students. Here is a screenshot of the landing page for one book that says “5h 13” in the “Time to Complete” section:

All that “Time to Complete” means is how long it is estimated it will take the average reader to read the whole book. It does not mean that the book can only be used for 5 hours and 13 minutes. There is no loan period for O’Reilly ebooks and they can be accessed by more than one user at a time.

Safari Ebook Database Is Now Called O’Reilly

Earlier this year, all the “Safari” branding was removed and replaced with “O’Reilly.” I’ve added a new temporary listing for “Safari” on our databases pages and renamed the original “Safari” link as “O’Reilly” (which you may see if you’ve added that database link to any of your own LibGuides).

At the end of the spring 2021 semester, I’ll remove the “Safari” listing altogether.

Connecting to Safari Ebooks from OneSearch

The route to a Safari ebook from a OneSearch record for that book is a bit more circuitous than it is for ebooks on other platforms (such as Ebook Central or Books24x7). Here is what users will need to do:

In the OneSearch record, click the green “Full text available” link.
Instead of being taken to a Baruch login page (the one with the night time photo of the Vertical Campus building in the background), you get a web page on the O’Reilly website about the book and a popup window that says “Welcome! Get instant access through your library.” In that popup window, click “Select your institution” from the drop down menu and then at the top of the list of options, select “Not listed? Click here”
A new box will open in the popup window asking for your “academic email.” Baruch and CUNY SPS folks should type in their school email address and then click “Let’s Go.”
The Baruch College login page shows up (the one with the Vertical Campus building in the background). Baruch and CUNY SPS folks should enter the same username and password info they’d use to access any other library resource and click the “Login” button.
The next thing the user will see is the ebook itself on the Safari platform and they can begin reading it.

Using a OneSearch record for a Safari ebook called slide:ology, I recorded a video demo of the steps above:

New Sign On Method for Safari Ebooks

There’s a new method of sign on for Safari that you will encounter when clicking the database link on our website or clicking on a “full text available” link in a OneSearch record for a specific Safari ebook. You’ll first see a glimpse of the Safari website or a landing page in Safari for a specific ebook and then you’ll be redirected to this new kind of login page:

This page asks for the same set of credentials that any student or staff or faculty member of Baruch or SPS should have: a Baruch username and password (similar to the ones entered in the proxy page). Once those credentials are entered, the user will be taken back to the Safari site and have access.

As you can see from the screenshot of the login page, it mentions “O’Reilly.” That is the company that owns the Safari ebook platform.

If you encounter any problems with this new system, please let Mike Waldman or me know.

New Database: Safari

We now subscribe to Safari, a collection of over 40,000 ebooks in information technology. This database includes all titles published by O’Reilly Media as well as titles from a number of other publishers. The collection also includes videos and a small number of case studies.

To use Safari, you’ll need to use the link on the A-Z database list (there is also a link on the ebooks databases page). Logging in to Safari from on or off campus requires a Baruch or CUNY SPS email address. Once the user provides that email, they are in. If a user wants to be able to use the iOS or Android app and read ebooks offline, they will need to set up an account with Safari using their Baruch or CUNY SPS email address and a password of their own choosing.

The vendor hopes to have their content indexed in the coming months by Ex Libris so records for each ebook can be found in the Primo discovery service (OneSearch here at CUNY).