LinkSource 29th August - overnight disruption to LinkSource links to full text from DISCOVER and other databases.

On Saturday 29th August we expect some disruption overnight (3am to 5am) to the LinkSource service which provides links out to full text from DISCOVER and other databases.

Changes to DISCOVER

We've been tweaking the DISCOVER interface a bit this summer, in response to feedback we've had from students.

In particular, the look of the right-hand section of the screen has changed completely. This is the area we use to highlight resources which aren't included in the main DISCOVER index (usually because the publisher doesn't want to co-operate). We used to have DISCOVER run live searches in some other databases, and you could then click the link and see the results. But we found 3 problems with this:

• the live searches didn't work a lot of the time
• some publishers wouldn't let us do searches this way at all
• hardly anyone clicked on the links anyway

So we have got rid of them. Instead we now offer alternative, simpler ways to link out to databases that don't sit within DISCOVER.

Where we can, we've added links which allow you to transfer your search term out of DISCOVER and into another database. When you click, you leave the DISCOVER interface and go out into the new database, with your search already done for you.





















We have a separate widget which lets you do the same thing with Web of Science.









 

And where we can't export search terms, we have simple links out to other useful databases. (Here's a full list of databases not in DISCOVER.)



















We're always interested to know what you think about DISCOVER so please let us know if you have any feedback or problems.

IEEE Xplore - access restored via UK Access Management Federation link

Yesterday's problem with access to IEEE Xplore via the UK Access Management Federation link has now been resolved. Please let us know if you continue to have any problems.

IEEE Xplore - no access via UK Access Management Federation link

We currently have no access to IEEE Xplore via the UK Access Management Federation link. The first link (IEEE/IET Electronic Library) is working normally, so you should still be able to access the service. IEEE are aware and working on a solution.

Dawsonera timeouts

Please be aware that Dawsonera ebooks will automatically time out after 30 minutes of inactivity. Some of our Dawsonera titles are restricted to a limited number of users at the same time - these will time out after 15 minutes, to make sure other people aren't kept waiting for their turn.

ScienceDirect offline for maintenance Saturday 1st August 11am-3.30pm

ScienceDirect and Scopus will be offline for scheduled maintenance for approximately 4.5 hours starting at 11am on Saturday 1st Augus. If you try to access them during this time you will get a downtime message. This will affect all ejournals with "www.sciencedirect.com" in the URL.

UPDATE: Shibboleth down

Shibboleth fault now fixed!!!. Good work ICT. (Update time: 10.30 am)

It looks like the authentication system known as Shibboleth is down. This is affecting access to our ebooks platforms (DawsonEra and VLEbooks), as well as RefWorks and the private areas of Readinglists.beds.ac.uk. (The public pages of the Readinglists site will still be accessible without logging in.)

Our ICT department are aware of the problem and are working to fix Shibboleth as soon as possible.