Statewide Electronic Resources Blog

We recently authorized Gale to decommission these expired or misused password.  If you were one of the libraries that hadn’t updated to geolocation URL’s, here is information to update your links.    For information about setting links to work with geolocation see:  http://mblc.state.ma.us/grants/licenses/links/index.php .

Also, refer to the letter sent via snail mail and email  by Marlene Heroux at MBLC to your attention in June 2012 that explained how to set up your proper geolocation links. You can contact Marlene Heroux at marlene.heroux@state.ma.us to email you another copy. For assistance with setting up your links, you may also contact MLS. See also our help page.

If you want your students to have easy access to all of the statewide licensed databases (Gale, ProQuest, Britannica) the easiest thing to do is bookmark the new easy one-stop shopping page that we’ve created just for each MLS member library. See  http://mblc.state.ma.us/grants/licenses/blog/gale/ready-made-statewide-licensed-resources-web-page-for-your-library-galesites/  Just set your favorite/bookmark to:

http://galesites.com/menu/insert library’s location ID here

 If you just want to link to individual databases that are of most interest to your students, just use the link generator to create the geolocation links for your library on your website.   You will find the link generator at: http://mblc.state.ma.us/grants/licenses/links/index.php

Other blog entries of interest:

Problem with library links for Gale, Proquest or Britannica statewide resources? http://mblc.state.ma.us/grants/licenses/blog/gale/problem-with-library-links-for-gale-proquest-or-britannica-statewide-resources/

Geolocation failures on a library computer http://mblc.state.ma.us/grants/licenses/blog/gale/geolocation-failures-on-a-library-computer/

A “geolocation failure” is said to occur when a user is prompted for their library card number:  This occasionally happens when your library’s Internet Provider may have assigned an IP address to your library computers that can’t be traced to Massachusetts.  It may happen on a single machine or several, but rarely happens at all.  Most of the time with geolocation enabled authentication, you don’t need to keep track of IP addresses in your library.  However, it if does happen inside your library, these “non-Massachusetts” IP addresses can be sent to the vendor by MLS to register them as “white-listed exceptions” for Massachusetts IP’s.  Simply, make a list of the IP addresses for the computers in the library or on campus (but not remote locations) on which you have received this prompt and send it to MLS.

A question came up at the Gale workshops about citation and bookmark links that do not work when a user clicks on them.  All of the statewide licensed electronic resources, including Gale,  the Globe from ProQuest and  Britannica have features  to create a citation or a bookmark to link back to an article  for future reference.

However, these vendor-generated citation and bookmark links, by themselves, do not take geolocation into account, the authentication method used for statewide products for all Massachusetts Library System member libraries that makes links work correctly with minimal identification by the user.   (The only exceptions are mainly academic libraries that have their own authentication servers.)  When a citation or bookmark link that does not contain proper authentication information, the user will be prompted for a user name and password, neither of which are used or necessary for access to any of the statewide licensed databases. Note, this is DIFFERENT from a geolocation failure, which results in a prompt for a library card number.  A library may employ a user name and password authentication scheme for access to locally licensed resources.

Thus, to use bookmark and citation features in the various vendor products, assuming that your website has the correct geolocation links set up, here are the steps  that you can instruct your users to take:

Gale

1. Direct your students to log into any of the Gale databases from your library database page as if they were going to do a search. They can click on any of the individual Gale databases or the link for the whole suite:

Examples: insert the PowerSearch or InfoTrac icons if you want to link to the entire Gale Suite and hyperlink it to: http://libraries.state.ma.us/login?db=gale&locid=PUT YOUR LOCATION HERE

insert the General OneFile  icon of you want to link to General OneFile and hyperlink it to: http://libraries.state.ma.us/login?db=ITOF&locid=PUT YOUR LOCATION HERE

2. Click on citation or bookmark link to article to open.

(Note: It is recommended that you use a product logo or a product  name, and hyperlink one of these to the actual URL to access the product that includes your location ID for your library.  Additional Gale Product icons)

ProQuest

1.Direct your students to log into the Boston Globe link a from your library database page as if they were going to do a search:  http://libraries.state.ma.us/login?db=Proquest_Globe&locid=PUT YOUR LOCATION ID HERE

Example: insert the words Boston Globe 1980+ and hyperlink it to:

http://libraries.state.ma.us/login?db=Proquest_Globe&locid=PUT YOUR LOCATION ID HERE

2. Click on citation or bookmark link to article that you wish to open.

 Britannica Products

The directions for accessing a Britannica citation URL are different from those for Gale and ProQuest.

1. Open the web page or document/bibliography that has the citation. Copy the citation link.

2. Direct your students to log into any of the Britannica statewide  databases from your library database page as if they were going to do a search, such as http://libraries.state.ma.us/login?db=eb_school&locid=PUT YOUR LOCATION ID HERE (this example is for the Britannica School Library Edition)

Example: insert the Britannica icon that you want to use and hyperlink it to: http://libraries.state.ma.us/login?db=eb_school&locid=PUT YOUR LOCATION ID HERE

3.  Paste the citation link into the browser and hit enter.

(Note: Additional Britannica logos)

Libraries have been wondering if they can link to our MBLC link generator page  instead of providing the direct links for the statewide licensed products by vendor or database title.  The answer is NO.  The Link Generator pages are not public pages, but are intended for use by LIBRARY STAFF ONLY for the purpose of finding the correct links to cut and paste onto their own library web pages.  It is NOT a substitution for an online electronic resource page for any individual library.

The good news is that such a page has also been created for your library to link to that provides your users with instant access to all of the statewide licensed resources.  This colorful page also known as Galesites includes access to all of the statewide licensed resources from Gale, Britannica and ProQuest with your library’s unique database title links already embedded in database icons, including GVRL book covers!   To link to this page, simply go to our  MBLC link generator page and cut and paste the Galesites link  from the yellow box. Thus, if  you have erroneously linked to the link generator page for your library, please change the link immediately to the Galesites link for your library.   As always, to locate the location ID for your library click on the Look it up here hyperlink on the MBLC link generator page.

For more information on this ready-made website for your library see also the blog entry on Galesites.

Need help designing an electronic resources or database or research page for your website?

The MBLC and MLS recognize that many Massachusetts Library System member libraries do not have the staff, time or resources to create their own electronic resource webpages.  Not to worry!  It’s already been done for you!  With the help of Gale Cengage, we are delighted to introduce a ready made statewide electronic resources webpage to link to from your website.  This colorful page includes access to all of the statewide licensed resources from Gale, Britannica and ProQuest with each library’s unique database title links already embedded in database icons, including GVRL book covers!

To create it all you have to do is go to our link generator at: http://mblc.state.ma.us/grants/licenses/links/index.php .   As always, to locate the location ID for your library click on the Look it up here hyperlink below the direct links box. Key in your location ID and then click search.  You will then see (note the example below has the code for the mblc, it will instead have the code for your library):

Click here to see what your ready-made webpage will look like.  Again, you’ll be seeing  sample of the MBLC page; your library’s name will appear in the blue bar instead of our name and your locID will be part of all of the database links.

Once you link to http://galesites.com/menu/yourlocID from any of your webpages, you have an instant electronic resources page.  When your patrons click on the resource links from this page, database usage will be captured on the vendor usage reports for your library. For more about usage reports see: http://mblc.state.ma.us/grants/licenses/statistics.php

The MBLC and MLS often get calls and emails from libraries saying that their statewide electronic resources links aren’t working.  The majority of the time, whenever the user is prompted for a user name and password (note: this is different than being prompted for a library card number which is a geolocation failure), the problem is often traced back to the fact that the library is not using the correct links as directed by the MBLC and MLS.

Often, the library found their links on the link generator, and instead of copying and pasting the links exactly as they appeared on the link generator, they clicked on the links and copied the URL for the page the link took them to.  Unfortunately, doing so by-passes the authentication that needs to take place through the link on the link generator.  A quick tip is that ALL of the statewide licensed resources links are constructed on a simple basic formula:

http://libraries.state.ma.us/login?db=[insert product code here]&locid=[insert unique library location ID here]

If the link that you have is not in this format, it is not correct.  The ONLY exceptions to this are links for libraries that have their own authentication server, which applies mainly to academic libraries.

In other cases, a library has done a thorough job on their web pages, but missed an incorrect link lurking behind a logo or accidentally skipped over an incorrect link on a list of database titles.  Take some time and go over your web pages, letting your cursor hover over database logos and titles, and you can pick up offending URL’s any that have slipped by!

Also remember to test any links you set up before going live, so that you don’t find a problem in the middle of a training session!