Reference at Newman Library

Tag: Technical Problems

Factiva Is Down (see update)

UPDATE: As of 1:30 PM, access has been restored. Details on this new blog post.

Thanks to alerts on the EZproxy mailing list this morning, I learned that Factiva access is down. I’m not sure that the problem is but once you log in, you get this error message on a Factiva page:

We are unable to process your request at this time. Please try again in a few minutes.

Error: 210905
Server: AWSPFWAPPS07

I’ve added a “temporarily unavailable” note to the database link in LibGuides. As soon as access is restored, I’ll post an update on the blog.

 

Wiley Remote Access Problems Fixed

The problem reported last week about our inability to get remote access to Wiley content has now been resolved. Wiley explained the problem this way:

Due to an abnormally high amount of web activity on Wiley Online Library, Cloudflare, our security solution, put extra checks in place to identify and prevent any potential for malicious activity. These checks flagged EZproxy traffic as a potential threat, blocking all access via EZproxy, as well as other third-party solutions, linking directly to the PDF. We are working on whitelisting these providers to restore access, and have already done so with OCLC-hosted EZproxy traffic.

Continuing Problems with Off-Campus Access to Wiley Online Library (updated)

The problems that all Wiley customers using EZproxy for authentication were reporting yesterday are still lingering. Users from off campus have been seeing an error message from Wiley that reads “This web property is not accessible via this address” and looks like this:
Error message from Wiley

While we can now view and download PDFs from articles from off campus, if you try to download a book chapter, you’ll likely see this error message. This content should still be available though to users on the campus network.

As soon as Wiley sorts out this mess with their Cloudflare firewall, which as acting as though incoming traffic from EZproxy servers is part of a DDoS attack, I’ll post an update.

UPDATE: As of 11/2/2021, this problem is now fixed. See this blog post for details.

Fix for Linking Errors from OneSearch to EBSCO Databases

EBSCO fixed the problem on their end that was causing error messages when users tried to go from links in OneSearch records into EBSCOhost databases for the full text (see last week’s blog post for details). Ex Libris is still updating its system in Alma for handling those links based on changes made by EBSCO, so some residual errors may crop up. If you have any linking problems from OneSearch into any database, please report them ASAP to Mike Waldman or me.

Linking Errors from OneSearch to EBSCOhost Databases (resolved)

Most (if not all) links from OneSearch records that lead into EBSCOhost databases dead end at an “OpenURL Connection” error page from EBSCO that looks like one of these:

Version 1:

Version 1 of error page

Version 2:

Version 2 of error page

This is the same problem that cropped up in June that EBSCO and Ex Libris eventually fixed. It’s now back again. Until the two vendors sort this out (again), here is the workaround:

  1. Look for another database link in the OneSearch record that goes to something other than an EBSCOhost database
  2. Use the A-Z list of databases to get to a link to the relevant EBSCOhost database and then run the search for the article within that database.

LibGuides System Is Down (see update)

Springshare customers in the US are reporting that their LibGuides systems are down. Here at Baruch, this means that we can’t access:

  • research guides
  • e-reserves
  • A-Z list of databases

As an alternative means of access to our A-Z list of databases, there is this Google Docs spreadsheet we can use to get links to all of our databases.

As soon as Springshare resolves the problem, an update will be posted here.

UPDATE (July 27, 2021, 12:17 pm): All LibGuides systems are now working again.

Updated Backup List of Database Links

Every six months, I generate a new backup list of all of our databases that appear on our A-Z database page. This backup exists in case the LibGuides system that hosts our databases page goes down.

The latest version of the backup list (created on 15 July 2021) can be found in the “Databases Overview” page in the Library Services wiki (look near the top of that page for a link to the backup list).