EBSCO "Check for Full Text" Error

Update:

Roughly 3 hours after I posted this, Electronic Resources sent out an email saying that this problem has been fixed. Yay!

It also means that this post is now outdated. yay.😑 

Uh...consider it an example of what how error posts will look like!

Hey Folks,

 At time of writing we are dealing with an error that is affecting users who are accessing EBSCO databases off-campus. The error occurs when a user finds an article that is catalogued in the database but does not have its full text stored with EBSCO. What is supposed to happen is that the user clicks on a button that reads "search for full text" which sends them to a Journals A-Z search for the article on the UNCG library website.

Figure 1: An image of an article entry in an EBSCO database with "check for full text" circled in red. 

 

Figure 2: An image of the Journals A-Z search for the article in figure 1. 

However, what happens for users who are off-campus is that search criteria from EBSCO fails to populate in the Journals A-Z search.

This is what you should see when you click "edit search" from the page depicted in Figure 2.

Figure 3: The search criteria used to get the results from figure 2. The ISSN, Article Title, Author(s), Published, and Volume fields have all been populated with the necessary information.

 And this is what someone who has been affected by this error will see.

Figure 4: An image of a Journal A-Z search displaying the message "we were unable to find direct full text links for this item." 

 

Figure 5: An image of the search criteria used for figure 4. Notably, only the Author(s) field is populated.

 

 At time of writing ERIT is looking into this error and will provide updates as the occur.

 

 Work Arounds

 These are two of the ways you can get the article to the patron if they are encountering this error.

1. Ask for the patron's UNCG email, download the PDF for the article, and send the article to the patron from your UNCG email address.
2. Ask the patron for the title of the article, locate it on your computer, confirm that we have full access to the article, and then send the patron a proxied hyperlink to the page that hosts the article. The proxy link can be found in the Technology tab of the reference manual.

The patron should still have access to the article, it is just that EBSCO is acting like a roadblock in their search process.

After the patron has gotten their article, please do assure them that the library is aware of the error and is working on fixing it. 

I hope this helps, and if you start noticing a pattern of patrons having similar errors please send details to LIBIGA@uncg.edu.

The "Searches Cannot Be Longer Than 40 words" Error.

 Hey Folks,

There is an error with the catalogue that has been showing up frequently at time of writing. This error prevents people from seeing search results when they use the catalogue search on the UNCG library homepage, and so far has manifested in two ways.

Figure 1: An image of UNCG's catalogue mistakenly displaying an error stating searches cannot be longer than 40 words even though the user has only searched for "french horns."

Figure 2: An image of UNCG's catalogue displaying an authentication request.

 

The Cause 

In all of the cases we've seen so far, the cause has been an issue with the Zotero browser extension. This post assumes basic familiarity with Zotero, however for more information please see our Zotero libguide and Zotero ULTRA tutorial.

The Fix

1. Locate the Zotero extension icon in the browser. This may be pinned to the left of your browser's address bar, or may need you to find it under the extensions icon typically represented by a puzzle piece.

Figure 3: An image of a browser with the correct buttons circled in red.

 

2. Navigate to the options page for the extension. In Firefox (pictured above) this will be labeled "preferences," in Chrome it will be "options," and in Edge it will be "extension options." In all cases, you should find the page labeled Zotero Connector Preferences.

3. Navigate to the tab labeled "proxies."

Figure 4: An image of the Zotero connector preferences page with the "proxies" tab circled in red. 

4. Locate and select the correct NC Live proxy under the "Configured Proxies" heading. The one you want is: https://login.proxy180.nclive.org/login?qurl=%u.

 

Figure 5: An image of the Zotero Connector Preferences page with the correct configured proxy circled in red.

5. Navigate to the box labeled "hostnames." From there you will find and delete "uncg.on.worldcat.org." If there are other configured proxies besides 180.nclive then you may want to see if that hostname appears under any of them and delete those entries as well.

Figure 6: An image of the Zotero connector preferences page with the correct hostname circled and labeled for deletion. 

6. Try a search in the library catalogue to make sure the error is resolved.

 A Simpler Fix

The above fix assumes that you, or the patron you are helping, wishes to continue using Zotero's proxy redirection feature. If that is not the case you can direct them to un-tick the "enable proxy redirection" box under proxy settings.

Why This Error Occurs

My best guess is that because we no longer have our own proxy server, and instead use NC Live's server, our catalogue gets confused and believes that a non-UNCG affiliated patron is attempting to access our catalogue through NC Live. This explains one of the permutations of the error. I have no idea why this causes our catalogue to believe the patron has entered a 40+ word search.

"No VGA cable" error on monitors on reference computers

Hi all,

There is apparently a growing trend of monitors in the Ref room giving the error message "no VGA cable" floating on a black screen.

Look for the row of buttons on the lower right corner of the monitor. The power button is the lowest button in this row and should be on.

The middle button in this row looks like an arrow pointing into rectangle with rounded corners (apparently that's tech-pictogram-ese for video input). Hit that button a few times until the display shows something other than a black screen. Making sure of course that the rest of the computer is on :)

Many thanks to Darryl for this fix!!

-Lea