Summon have recently informed us that they will be undertaking some updates that will result in system downtime for up to 24 hours from 02:00 Saturday 29 May to 02:00 Sunday 30 May.  

 This means that Summon will be available for searching, but some of the links may be unavailable. The E-Journals Finder will also be unavailable during this period.  

 If you have been planning to use Summon for research the weekend of the 29- 30 May, we would recommend downloading any articles or chapters you will need from Summon before the outage, so that your studies are not impacted.  

 There will still be some access to E-resources via the Enterprise Catalogue  (for eBooks) and the A-Z database (for journals, articles, eBooks and databases). However, the A-Z database list is not a definitive list of our resources, so please do access and download anything you think you will need beforehand.  

As always, please do contact the E-Team at eresourceshelp@reading.ac.uk or via our e-resources problem report form, if you have any concerns or queries.  

We apologise for any inconvenience this outage may cause. 

Lindsay Warwick, E-resources Team

The issue we were having with our secondary authentication system has now been resolved, and you should be able to access e-resources as normal.

If you encounter any problems, please try clearing your browser cache in case your browser has “remembered” any errors, and if the problem persists contact the E-resources

Team by emailing eresourceshelp@reading.ac.uk or submitting a problem report form.

We apologise for the inconvenience this has caused you. Thank you for your patience as we worked on a solution.

Lindsay Warwick, E-resources Team

There is currently an issue with one of the authentication systems we use to authenticate users. This is not our primary authentication system and only a relatively small number of links are affected, but you may find that you encounter error messages with some links.

The links that are currently problematic, are identifiable by the prefix we are using in the weblink. It may look like this- https://login.dblibweb.rdg.ac.uk/login?url=. We are working as a matter of urgency with the company who manages this authentication system to resolve the situation and hope to find a solution soon.

The majority of our E-resources are not using this system, and you should still be able to access them via the A-Z database, in Summon and on Talis. However, if you do encounter an issue, please do contact the E-Team at eresourceshelp@reading.ac.uk or via our e-resources problem report form, we may be able to provide you with alternative access.

Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

Lindsay Warwick, E-resources Team

We have now migrated to our new authentication system, and you may have noticed that the method for logging into e-resources has changed. The University Single Sign On page will now look the same as the page you see when you log into other University services such as your emails or other Office 365 services. This also means that you will need to use a different username to log into e-resources. Where previously you only used your two-letter and six-digit username (e.g. ab123456) to log in, you will now need to add the suffix of your email address (e.g. ab123456@student.reading.ac.uk). This is the same username you will already use to log into services such as Blackboard. Your password will not change.

This change will not affect how you log into your Library account to renew loans, place holds etc, this username will remain as e.g. ab123456 without the email suffix. 

We have been testing resources to ensure that they are working with our new system. The majority are now tested and working. If you do encounter any ‘Forbidden’ error messages during the holiday closure period, we do have alternative routes set up. If you are experiencing issues in Summon, you can access the majority of our E-resources using the A-Z databases list. Using the links here, you should be prompted to log in before you reach the platform. Once you are logged in you can then search the website for the resources you wish to access. Alternatively, if you search for a platform from a search engine you can log in via the institutional (or Shibboleth) login. Please see our webpage on using the institutional login for instructions on how to do this. You can then search by keyword, title or author to access our subscribed content.  

There is a known issue with EBSCO databases and Summon, so please do access those databases via our A-Z databases list. We are working with EBSCO to resolve this issue, and we are hopeful for a solution in the new year.  

As always if you experience an issue, please do report it to the E-resources Team, via our e-resources problem report form, or by emailing eresourceshelp@reading.ac.uk, and we will get back to you as soon as possible after the Christmas closure period. Please do try the alternative routes mentioned above.  

Lindsay Warwick, E-resources Team

Please bear with us. Whilst transferred access to some resources has been smooth, access to others has needed fixing. Our E-Resources Team is testing all resources, but if you discover a ‘forbidden error’ message yourself, please let us know: email eresourceshelp@reading.ac.uk or submit an e-resources problem report form. We’d really appreciate it!

Unfortunately this week there is also a separate security issue with Google Chrome following their security update. Publishers are in the process of updating their links but if you encounter this error, we recommend trying the link in a different browser like Edge or FireFox.

Why change servers?

The change comes because OpenAthens no longer provide support for locally hosted versions of this system and the local hardware has reached end of life status, but the change will also bring in some additional positives such as more seamless access to e-resources and a more consistent way of logging in.

What will be different?

From 14 December, you will start to see changes with how you log into e-resources. The University Single Sign On page will change and look the same as the page you see when you log into other University services such as your emails or other Office 365 services. This also means that you will need to use a different username to log into e-resources. Where previously you only used your two letter and six digit username (e.g. ab123456) to log in, you will now need to add the suffix of your email address (e.g. ab123456@student.reading.ac.uk). This is the same username you will already use to log into services such as Blackboard. Your password will not change. 

This change will not affect how you log into your Library account to renew loans, place holds etc, this username will remain as ab123456 without the email suffix. 

More info

For further information on the server migration and details of how it may affect personalisation features such as alerts and saved searches, please see our previous blog post. 

As always, if you are having any issues accessing e-resources, you can contact us via eresourceshelp@reading.ac.uk or by submitting an e-resources problem report form. We are always happy to help. 

E-resources Team 

During week 6 (week beginning 2 November 2020) we will be making some changes you may notice in Summon. We are working towards a more consistent approach for logging into e-resources, and this is a step towards that. These changes should mean that there will be fewer resources for which you will need to find the institutional login on the platform.  

These changes may take up to a week to come into effect, but you should still be able to access all our content as normal. The only change you should experience is the order in which you log in to online resources.  During this period, you may still need to log in via the institutional login on the platform as you have been doing if you are accessing off-campus. However, as the updates take effect you may find that for some of our resources in Summon, you will now be prompted to log in via our Single Sign On page before you reach the online resource. Once you have logged in, you will be directed to the content and will be authenticated so you can access everything we subscribe to on the platform.  

These changes do not affect what you use to log in to e-resources, you will still just need your IT username, e.g. ab123456 (not your full email address), and password.  

We do not anticipate any problems with access to resources in Summon. However, should you experience any access issues, we do have alternative routes that you can use to navigate to e-resources. You can use Enterprise (first search box on the library homepage) to search for e-books and online journal titles, and our databases a-z list, which contains database level links to our subscribed platforms.  

As always, if you are having any issues accessing e-resources, you can contact us via eresourceshelp@reading.ac.uk or by submitting an e-resources problem report form. We are always happy to help.  

Lindsay Warwick, E-resources Team

We are currently experiencing problems with resources that we link to via DOI. A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is a unique alphanumeric string that is used to identify content and provide a persistent link to its location on the internet. An example of a resource that links via DOI is this, http://idpproxy.reading.ac.uk/login?url=https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316338773.

Unfortunately one of our authentication methods is currently interfering with such linking and preventing users from accessing content. If you find a link with this problem it will take you to a webpage with a ‘Bad Gateway’ error message. This is affecting resources that are using our Proxy that link via DOI, and as such may appear in Talis, Enterprise or Summon. We are aware of the urgency of this problem and are working with the company that manages this authentication system to resolve the situation. In the meantime we have changed links in Talis and Summon so that they no longer authenticate with the proxy, these changes may take up to 48 hours to complete. Once on a platform you may need to login to a resource via the institutional sign in.

If you come across such an error message you can still access the resource by using our A-Z databases list to search for the platform the eBook or article is on, and then search the database using the title or author to find the resource.

I apologise for the inconvenience caused.

Lindsay Warwick, E-resources Team