UoB password site change 22 December 2016

The site you use to reset your university password is changing as of tomorrow, 22 December 2016.


The new service will be at https://password.beds.ac.uk

MyEBSCOhost account problems fixed

We've now had confirmation that this fix has indeed worked and there should be no more errors.
If you do have any further problems, please let us know and we'll investigate those.

MyEBSCOhost account problems - are they fixed?

Our supplier was due to deploy a fix overnight for the "application level exception" account problems we've been having – but as we haven't had it on any of the staff accounts, we can't test whether it has worked. Will any of you who have had the problem let us know if it has fixed it for you, or not?

MyEBSCOhost login problems in DISCOVER - should be fixed 21st May

We've had some news on this problem - our supplier EBSCO has identified the problem, and have scheduled a fix for 20th May. As they are in the USA and a bit behind us, we would expect to see the benefit of this on 21st May. If after that date you are still getting errors on your account, please let us know.

MyEBSCOhost login problems in DISCOVER

We’ve had a suggestion from another university having the same problem that may help you to access your references. They have found that although they can’t access their folders from DISCOVER, they can do it from individual databases on EBSCOhost. (They’re all provided by EBSCO, and use the same personal accounts, it’s just that DISCOVER has a lot of other searchable things in it too like our catalogue records.) Try going to our EBSCOhost database page, and choosing any of the databases. You’ll see a Sign In option in the top blue bar (instead of the red bar you get in DISCOVER). That should sign you in to the same account you would have accessed in DISCOVER, and you'll be able to access the things you saved there. If this workaround still doesn't work for you, please let us know. We'll continue to push for a proper solution to this problem.

MyEBSCOhost login problems

We've had some reports of people getting “application level exception” errors when trying to log into their MyEBSCOhost account, which is where you can keep saved searches and articles in EBSCO databases (including DISCOVER). We have reported this and EBSCO are currently looking for a fix. Learning Resources does not have any way to access this account for you but if you are having this problem, email us at library.technical@beds.ac.uk with details of your MyEBSCOhost username. We can then send your details on to EBSCO to investigate.

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.

DISCOVER/EBSCOhost personalisation maintenance, Tuesday 18th December 12-3pm

We've had warning from EBSCO that they will be upgrading the personalisation features in EBSCOhost (including DISCOVER), from 12 noon on Tuesday 18th December for approximately 3 hours.

EBSCOhost databases (including DISCOVER) will continue to be available, however some functionality will be affected:

• Personal User Authentication
• Checkout and Download of eBooks
• Alerts
• Access to My EBSCOhost folder items or the ability to save items to personalized folders from session
• RSS will be unavailable

 

DISCOVER/EBSCOhost sign in accounts and "records not available"

Many thanks to those of you who sent in their account details for investigation. EBSCO have provided an explanation:

The message saying that the records are not available will show for any content saved to a folder that has been removed from the databases it was originally in. If a publisher decides they are going to update the amount of content they provide to us and we are forced to remove this content from our databases this message will display in a users folder letting them know that these records are no longer available to be accessed. Unfortunately we are unable to provide this content at this time due to our agreements with the publishers and we are at the mercy of what they would like to provide us.

In other words, the article itself has been deleted from EBSCO's database, along with the record of it in your account. We suggest that you use RefWorks to save references instead. You can easily export references from DISCOVER or EBSCOhost to your RefWorks account by adding them to a folder and then clicked "Export". 

Researcher staff and student accounts and the library

If you are a University of Bedfordshire researcher, you will have been set up with 2 user accounts - a staff account and a student account. Please use your student account (username is a registration number) to access all digital library resources, not your staff account (username e.g. jbloggs). Your student account gives you full access to all of our digital library resources - your staff account does not. Just use your staff account for accessing your GroupWise email, and for printing in the library if you have been authorised to charge this to your faculty and have been given a separate staff ID card for this purpose.