Kia ora koutou

The e-learning help for staff pages in LEARN have been updated again and they have used an old and non-functional version of the ezproxy links (linking to library resources) page in which the link maker doesn’t actually work and is missing info on Westlaw, HBR links etc.  I’ve logged an assyst request for FTL to swap the link to the most recent page version: https://learn.canterbury.ac.nz/mod/page/view.php?id=1844585.

Please use the link above if you are pointing academics to our linking advice (there is also a version on the intranet) until FTL have updated the page linked to from Library Resources (I’ll post again when I have confirmation of this)

Ngā mihi,

Romy (on behalf of Library Digital Services)

Kia ora koutou

If you are due a PC replacement (asset tag on your computer has July 2016 on it) you may find the Windows updates IT pushed out recently (including a big feature update) take some time to install on your aging PC.  Our record in LAC is Wendy with over 4 hours, but has been very variable experience.

I highly recommend setting the updates to run (if they are pending there should be an indication in the power menu in Windows start that it wants to “update and restart” or “update and shutdown”) at the end of your work day so they have time to complete before you next need to use or remote to your computer.

IT have recently (end last week) changed how Windows Updates get rolled out and installed on individual computers.  You should now be able to set up your active hours in Windows Update Settings so that updates will happen automatically outside these times.

Ngā mihi,

Romy (on behalf of Library Digital Services)

Kia ora koutou

You’ll all have seen the email this morning from the Cyber Programme – MFA is being switched on for us tomorrow at 9am.  If you have set up an MFA security sign in method (e.g. via authenticator app or phone) you should be fine for the Microsoft 365 universe (Teams, Outlook, Tū ki te tahi, sharepoint online, OneDrive…).

But we discovered yesterday that the switch over to MFA will break the LibCal Appointments Outlook calendar sync.
If you use Appointments you’ll need to go through the “Authorize with Microsoft account” button process again to re-authorise the sync.

Tomorrow when the change is complete and the sync breaks (sorry not sure exactly when that will be – you may need to check a few times through the day).  You’ll know it has broken as there will be a red error message  on your Appointments dashboard:

1. Log in to appointments and head to the Integrations tab, scroll down to the Outlook/Exchange section of the page.
2. Click on the “Authorize with Microsoft Account” button to reactivate things.  If you’ve signed in to something Microsoft already you’ll probably find you don’t even need to sign in.  Just select “Calendar” from the Calendar dropdown menu and hit save and you will be good to go.

We have set up a report in LibCal so should get notification of when things break and will post a reminder tomorrow but wanted to post ahead of time to give you a heads up (the sync breaking means people can potential book appointments with you when you are busy in Outlook and appointments won’t show in your calendar).

Ngā mihi,

Romy (on behalf of Library Digital Services)

Kia ora koutou

Myself and a few others have had problems with text messages from the go.canterbury remote access site not arriving this morning.  To get a remote session going call the IT helpdesk:

0508 UC IT HELP (0508 824 843) or +64 3 369 5000.

They can look up the code that was meant to be sent to you and give it to you over the phone – need to have your computer/device handy when you call as you’ll need to log in and enter the code while on the phone.

Ngā mihi,

Romy (on behalf of Library Digital Services)

Kia ora koutou

Last week I made the decision to delay the planned  go live with Open Athens (go live 15 February to be running for start of Semester 1 2022).  There were a number of reasons for this, the biggest being, a solution from IT/Digital Services that would only allow currently enrolled students to access our resources (we need them to set up and regularly maintain an access group), had not yet been put in place and tested.
We did not want to introduce additional student access problems for the start of semester (resolvable only by IT service desk who are always busy at that time), combined with Subject Librarian teaching and possible Omicron disruption for students and staff.

Instead we have opted to soft launch – allowing users to self-discover Open Athens through “access via your academic institution” type links in big publisher platforms e.g. Elsevier, but not change all the links in Horizon, Database pages, Multisearch, LEARN etc. just yet.  These will still point at ezproxy, which staff and returning students will be familiar with.
We will aim to do the proper go-live (which really just means changing all the library links to Open Athens ones) in the mid-semester break instead.

How will this change your library staff life?

Helping students who cannot log in to access resources

Users reporting they cannot access library e-resources may now be having problems with 2 separate access systems and finding out how they were trying to access the resource will be more important for troubleshooting.

• An ezproxy access (via Remote Access Login screen) issue will be likely if they are accessing  via library links (Catalogue, Database pages, Multisearch, LEARN,  “Full text at UC” Google Scholar links).
• An Open Athens issue (if they navigate to a publisher site themselves) can present 2 ways.
  – the users see a Microsoft error screen (this means they are not in the right current staff or student group and need to be added by Service Desk).
  – users see an Open Athens permission denied screen (the resource is not correctly set up for Open Athens).

This could get quite confusing so, for now, please refer all access denied type access problems to Library Digital Services  for investigation – we’ll work out what needs to be done to resolve the issue.  Screenshots/info from affected users will be very handy for us to do this.
If it’s definitely an Open Athens problem you can suggest users try the library catalogue/database link to the resource instead (please still report the problem to us though so they are sorted for when we go live).

LAC and Library Digital Services staff

We will need to maintain access to e-resources via both ezproxy/IP authentication and Open Athens.  Any new subscriptions and current ones with platform changes etc. will need to be set up and tested for both authentication systems.  Horizon/Library catalogue links will continue to be constructed via the existing link maker (with ezproxy string).

Helping lecturers with LEARN linking

LEARN links should continue to be constructed via the existing link maker (with ezproxy string).  We will look at converting these when we go live properly but will likely start with only new links at first.

If any teams would like more information on Open Athens, the soft launch, and what it looks like for users please contact me and I can set up a demonstration session(s).

Ngā mihi,

Romy (on behalf of Library Digital Services)

***update 1/2/22 – staff access is back – Romy***

Kia ora koutou

As we work on getting Open Athens ready for a possible go live of 15th Feb, Digital Services (a.k.a. IT) are making some changes to the access groups (these control who is allowed to log in to Microsoft Open Athens authentication part of Open Athens).  As they switch over you may get staff members that have successfully been using the “access via your institution” self-discovery access to resources like SciVal now getting access denied Microsoft error pages.

This should be sorted soon – in the meantime please direct affected users to the links on database pages etc. that go through ezproxy rather than Open Athens.

NB: access is still not open to any students but Digital Services are working on getting a solution for this in place.

Ngā mihi,

Romy

Kia ora koutou

At present external borrowers are able to come in to PJH building (if vaccine pass presented to security) but are excluded from EPS (no canterbury card) and MB (policy under red – unless they have requested access with staff).  So instead of disabling requests for external borrowers (includes ULANZ and external membership borrowers) we have allowed requests but limited to central pick up location only.

When external borrowers attempt to request most things they will only see central as a pickup location option :).

But items that have other pick up location restrictions (e.g. library use only items from MB) will show all locations as available but they will get error messages if they choose any of them.  This is an unfortunate side-effect of the complex Horizon circulation and request rules.  Example below:

You will need to close and re-open your Horizon client to pick up the changes to these request rules.

NB: We will disable requesting for external borrower in future in the red/orange settings if demand for space in PJH means we need to exclude external borrowers again.

Ngā mihi,

Romy (on behalf of Library Digital Services)

Kia ora koutou

This Sunday 16 January some ProQuest products will be temporarily available for scheduled maintenance from 4pm for around 8 hours.   The affected ProQuest databases we subscribe to are:

• Ebook Central (we have a lot of e-books on this platform)
• ProQuest Dissertation & Theses Absract/Indexes

Ngā mihi,

Romy (on behalf of Library Digital Services)

Kia ora koutou

I’ve finished the maintenance work on Minisis – Kā kohika is back up and you can now use Minisis clients if you wish.

Ngā mihi,

Romy (on behalf of Library Digital Services)

Kia ora koutou

I am about to start our annual Minisis maintenance (re-indexing) – this will require Minisis to be down (including all clients and Kā kohika) for a few hours.

I will post another message when the work is done.

Ngā mihi,

Romy (on behalf of Library Digital Services)