[Eril-l] Ebook central problem - do you see this?

[Fox, Linda J.]

Hi, Heather,

It sounds like you are talking about "anonymous access."  We are currently trying to get that to work for us.  The hiccup is related to the way we have set up and use our EZproxy server, so I'm not sure if other libraries will run into the same problem.  We do use the EZproxy SharedSecret authentication method; I'm not sure if it will work in any other context.   There is some ability to customize what users can do without logging in, but I don't think a user could download an entire book, just for download or print a chapter.  So it won't address the problem described below.  That is a usability issue that ProQuest should address.

The documentation related to anonymous access is a bit hidden on the ProQuest Support site, but I was able to find it by searching the on the phrase "continue as guest."


Linda Fox
Senior Library Information Specialist
UMKC University Libraries
Miller Nichols Library Room 304
800 E 51st Street
Kansas City, MO  64110
http://library.umkc.edu<http://library.umkc.edu/>
(816) 235-5290
fax: (816) 333-5584
foxlj at umkc.edu<mailto:foxlj at umkc.edu>



From: Eril-l [mailto:eril-l-bounces at lists.eril-l.org] On Behalf Of Heather Shipman
Sent: Thursday, October 5, 2017 8:31 AM
To: Cynthia Harper <charper at vts.edu>; eril-l at lists.eril-l.org
Subject: Re: [Eril-l] Ebook central problem - do you see this?

Cindy,

I haven't seen that bug myself yet, but our ProQuest reps visited recently, and we complained about the login requirement for printing/chapter download, which I have never ever seen any other major ebook platform implement. Our reps were surprised to hear that this requirement existed, though they mentioned there was some sort of "back door" that allows a loginless download, and they have folks working to "make that more visible". They promised to dig into it.

So we're currently prodding them on that, and I forwarded your email to our rep in the context of that existing conversation. Getting rid of that would at least fix the mobile device problem for PDF downloads. Not so much on full-text downloads, though, which I think would be the more likely preference on a small device, to get the content in a reflowable format1. So I pointed out that full-text downloads would still have this login display problem even if the login requirement were dropped from chapter PDFs.

I, too, would totally not mind if other institutions were also to complain about a login even being required for printing and downloading chapter PDFs. It would be nice if we could nip that nonsense in the bud.



1 I know Bluefire exists, but it's been a pain in the butt the few times I tried to test it. If anyone knows how to make Bluefire reflow a PDF into something actually readable without having to zoom in and slide the page back and forth over and over again, I would be super interested in instructions. My experiments with Bluefire thus far have just made me dizzy.


[Thumbnail2]
Heather Shipman
E-book Acquisitions and Management Specialist
110 Olin Library, Cornell University
Heather.shipman at cornell.edu<mailto:Heather.shipman at cornell.edu>



From: Eril-l [mailto:eril-l-bounces at lists.eril-l.org] On Behalf Of Cynthia Harper
Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2017 5:27 PM
To: eril-l (eril-l at lists.eril-l.org<mailto:eril-l at lists.eril-l.org>) <eril-l at lists.eril-l.org<mailto:eril-l at lists.eril-l.org>>
Subject: [Eril-l] Ebook central problem - do you see this?

I've reported this problem to Proquest, they simply said I should flip my mobile device from portrait to landscape. I don't think they know what problem I'm talking about.

Have you seen this:
                "I have noticed before that on some devices, the ebook central login prompt is invisible as it's overlayed on a cover page image. I was able to replicate this, and reported this problem to Proquest last night, and their suggestion is that the user turn from portrait mode to landscape mode. I didn't find that suggestion helpful, and they went on in their message to reconfirm that there does need to be an individual login to ebook central, but when I checked again the problem didn't occur on the same smartphone I'd seen it on yesterday."

                It happens on small devices, after you request a book to download, and Ebook Central tells them "your library wants you to log in before downloading" (ahem - it was not our decision, it's Proquest's insistence).  At that time, it presents a screen that has the book cover as the background, and the prompts to "Register " for an account, or "Have an account? Sign In" in thin blue print. It's virtually invisible.  I only found it because I know it's there. To users, it's a roadblock.


Please help me alert them to fix this!
P.S. - I decided today to try to get others involved in begging for fixes, rather than relying on simply reporting them to tech support - that's why so many messages)

Cindy Harper
Virginia Theological Seminary
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