Web of Science/Endnote maintenance (personal accounts only) - Saturday, April 25th.

Thomson Reuters have advised of two upcoming minor disruptions to the 'Personalisation login' (TR registered email address and password accounts), for Web of Science and EndNote Online.

Users previously logged in are not expected to experience any issues, however during the downtime users will be unable to login to the applications using these accounts.

Thomson Reuters apologise for any inconvenience due as a result.

Expected Maintenance Dates and Times:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Saturday, April 25^th.

                Expected Downtime* = 15 minutes.

                Maintenance Window = 1:00 PM EST to 4:00 PM, BST.

VLEbooks download problem solved

The problem we have been having with the Download function in our VLEbooks has now been solved. If you see a download button you will now be able to download the book to your device for up to 3 days.You will have to have Adobe Digital Editions installed on your PC, or an Adobe ID to read VLEbooks on either an Android or Apple iOS phone or tablet. The VLEbooks eBook reader app can then be installed from the Apple App store and the Play Store. Do not try to download ebooks to Library computers - this is for your own device only. The Read Online option continues to be available for all ebooks on all machines.

Westlaw problems

We've had a report of errors in Westlaw - being logged out, or getting a blank screen. It doesn't seem to be affecting everybody, so we need some more information about what is going on before we can find a solution. If you do get an error in Westlaw, please would you email us with details of what type of device and browser you are using, and if possible a screenshot of the error.

DISCOVER/EBSCOHOST passwords

DISCOVER providers EBSCO have made a change to the way in which "My EBSCOhost" passwords are created, in order to make accounts more secure. If you set up a new account, or change your password, you will have to choose one that is acceptably strong. They've given us this guidance:

Our system determines password strength based on a variety of criteria, using an algorithm to determine the strength of the password entered. Key attributes that our algorithm considers include:

• Length of the password

• Types of characters entered (i.e. case, numerals, punctuation)

• Word-like patterns embedded in the password

Due to the complexity and number of possibilities, we are unable to provide specific requirements for a strong password. However, as you begin to enter a value into the password field, the strength indicator will reflect how strong your password is using both color and strength value (red=weak vs. green=strong). When your password meets the requirements, the indicator displays that your password is strong and you can retype the password in the next field to confirm it. 

Please be aware that My EBSCOhost accounts are managed by EBSCO, not by the university, and we cannot change or retrieve passwords for you. Also, as the database covers users in many universities and colleges around the world, it is quite likely that your first choice of username will already be taken and you will have to use an alternative.

Chrome 42 issues with Scopus Document Download Manager

If you have upgraded to Chrome 42 and you are unable to download documents on Scopus, check out the troubleshooting guide on the Scopus blog.

Dawsonera ebooks - downtime on Sunday 19th April 2.30-15.30pm

Dawsonera ebooks will be unavailable for up to one hour between 14:30 and 15:30 BST on Sunday 19th April whilst British Telecom undertake essential work on the internet services.

Dawsonera will be offline during this time and students should ensure they have downloaded and opened any ebooks they need access to before this outage occurs.

It will not be possible to read titles which have been downloaded but not opened before the outage period.

From 15:30 on Sunday, 19th April all systems will resume and normal processes may continue.

Discover & Ebsco databases now restored

The issue was Ebsco's servers and they sent apologies for any inconvenience caused.Universities across Europe were affected, apparently.

If you have any problems over the weekend, call our helpdesks on 01582 743488 or 01582 793189 or email library.technical@beds.ac.uk.

Discover & Ebsco databases: technical problems

We have alerted our supplier EBSCO to the '504 Gateway Timeout' messages that are affecting access to

• Discover
• Academic Search Elite
• AMED
• Art Full Text
• Business Source Premier
• CINAHL
• Communication & Mass Media Complete
• Education Research Complete
• Hospitality and Tourism Complete
• PsycINFO
• SocINDEX
• SPORTDiscus

They are treating the issue as urgent and are investigating.

Some people report that they can get into these products using the browser IE so if your usual internet browser is Firefox or Chrome, try that instead. No problems have been reported with Safari so far.

Access to the EBSCO Electronic Journals Service and EBSCO Ebooks seems unaffected as well.

Problem with the 'Linked Full Text' links on DISCOVER & away round it

Unfortunately, the Linked Full Text link for results on DISCOVER has stopped working. We have reported to the fault to the service providers and asked them to correct the fault as a matter of urgency.

But do not despair! The links to all the electronic journals from the library catalogue are still working. So, if you have found a reference to an article on Discover like this one

You have all the citation details: 

O'Bannon, B, & Thomas, K 2014, 'Teacher perceptions of using mobile phones in the classroom: Age matters!', Computers & Education, 74, pp. 15-25

The article is in the journal ‘Computers & Education’. Click on the link with the tulips symbol next to it to find the journal on the Library Catalogue. Then follow the onscreen links to find volume 74 published in 2014. The article starts on page 15.

If you have any problems with this during the day, pop along to the Study Hub helpdesk and one of our Academic Liaison Librarians or call your ALL. Out-of-hours, our Reader Services team will be happy to help you.

But we hope that EBSCO (who provide DISCOVER) will fix the problem very soon. Thank you to everyone who reported the problem overnight.

VLEbooks download problem

We have a problem with the download to device function for our ebooks on the VLEbooks platform (reading online is still functioning correctly). The drop-down list of the days you can choose to download for is wrong, and does not allow you to choose a number within the range set. We are hoping that this will be fixed very soon. The read online function is working correctly so you should still be able to access the books you need. As ever, if you come across a problem please let us know.

Newsbank interface - changes now in place

Newsbank have enhanced their interface to make it easier to navigate:

NewsBank’s enhanced interface provides easier and quicker access to content and features
functionality to help utilize the articles retrieved. Included are more ways to filter data for greater relevancy, precision and comparability as well as simplified search options. Frequently-used functions can now be accessed with fewer clicks.
Overview of Interface Enhancements:
Searching:
• More navigators by which the content can be explored
• Searches can be refined either before or after conducting a search
• Searches can be edited directly on the search form which remains at the top of the result list

 Navigation:
• Tool Bar for access to Search History, Document View History, Saved Articles (My Collection) and Other NewsBank Products is available on all screens
• Email, Cite and Print commands are more prominent on the article page
• Add to My Collection, Print or Email are available under each article on the results page
• Source Type icons appear in each article returned on the search results page

 Functionality:
• Result list can be sorted before or after entering a search
• URLs for all screens are persistent and can be bookmarked for future use
• Citing requires fewer clicks to get to a preferred format, and more formats are available
• The Browse Issues option is accessible from within articles
• Two options to return to the beginning screen are available: Clickable NewsBank Logo and New Search link under logo
• Enhanced source list provides the ability to search for titles and information about sources

Questions and Comments:
• Reply to the survey at the top of the screen or click the Contact Customer Service link
• Access the multimedia Help section at the top of the screen in your NewsBank resource

 There is also an introductory video. If you do have any problems, let us know.

WebPrint service unavailable this afternoon, 2.30 - 5pm

The WebPrint service will be unavailable due to system maintenance this afternoon from 2.30. Services should be back by 5.00pm (hopefully earlier). Existing print jobs should not be affected.