From ScienceDirect:

“ScienceDirect will be unavailable due to scheduled maintenance for approximately 7.5 hours during the period Saturday, 29 Aug. to 14:30 to 22:00 EST. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

From Exam Master:

Scheduled Server Down Time

Tuesday, June 9, 2:00am through 5:00am EDT

We are upgrading our Exam Master OnLine system performance! This upgrade will require some downtime for system availability.

Please note and plan accordingly: On Tuesday, June 9, from 2:00am through 5:00am (EDT), Exam Master OnLine will be unavailable.

We appreciate your patience during this upgrade!

Regards,

The Team at Exam Master

I have received several notices from patrons having trouble linking to articles from Elsevier Sciencedirect from within other databases (e.g. Pubmed).  It seems that there is some issue with the way Sciencedirect’s linking structure is communicating with SFX.  While Elsevier and SFX work this out, I will share a workaround that allows patrons access to the article they are seeking.

Problem: Article-level linking to Elsevier Sciencedirect content through SFX (like below):

yields the following error message:

Workaround Solution: If patrons DE-POPULATE the year, volume, issue, and start page boxes from the SFX menu, they can then hit ‘GO’ or click on the Elsevier Sciencedirect link and they will be taken successfully to the the journal homepage on ScienceDirect’s site, where they may navigate to the article.

I will let everyone know when this issue is resolved.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Drexel now has a subscription to CQ Global Researcher.  A companion to our existing CQ Researcher subscription, CQ Global Researcher offers background and context on world news from an authoritative global perspective with in-depth coverage of newsworthy global affairs from a multitude of international viewpoints.

Enjoy!

From Elsevier:

“On Saturday, 15 November, ScienceDirect will be unavailable for scheduled upgrades during the following periods:

For nine hours – 8:00 a.m. EST until 5:00 p.m. EST

We apologize for the inconvenience,
Regards,
The Elsevier Team. “

I have added a note in the catalog records for Sciencedirect and each of its individual Journals and Reference Works noting the downtime.

I have had a few folks calling in frustration over accessibility to some of our Ovid journals (from either PsycInfo, LWW Total Access Collection, or Journals at OVID within Medline).  The root of the issue is OVID’s accessibility policy, which is:

1 (one) simultaneous user for full text of each licensed journal on the OVID platform.

Please advise users who encounter a “Users Exceeded” error upon attempting access to fulltext from OVID databases to try accessing the article again at a later time.  We have no way of freeing-up the journal for access from the libraries.

We have had several reports of faulty SFX linking from CINAHL search results in the last day.  Basically, it seems CINAHL is pulling SFX menus with links that either do not successfully result in the full text or that suggest we have fulltext access when we no longer do.  It seems that CINAHL is using outdated data for the SFX menu.  We are working on figuring out why this is happening and hoping to resolve the issue soon.  In the meantime, I recommend directing patrons who find useful citations in CINAHL to the Journal Search to search for electronic access.  I’ll provide updates on this issue as I have them.

Please let us know if you experience similar linking issues in any other EbscoHost database.

As I discovered this morning, there is an issue when using Firefox 3 to access Ebrary. Once you have installed the  Ebrary Reader, you may find that you have inadvertently wandered into an “install missing plug-ins” loop. If this is the case, don’t worry, there is a way out.

Mac: save the plug-in to LibraryInternet Plugins folder on your Macintosh HD

Windows: save the plug-in to My ComputerLocal Disk C:Program FilesMozilla FirefoxPlugins then restart your browser

This should free you from the loop. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Nancy