Accessing Resources Off-Campus

When you open a library database on campus, access usually feels seamless—you click and you’re in. That’s because most vendors rely on IP authentication, which means they recognize the request as coming from the university’s network and automatically allow entry. The real hurdle comes when you’re off campus: your home or café internet connection isn’t tied to the university’s IP range, so the database won’t recognize you as part of the institution. This is where the proxy server steps in. Once you log in with your university credentials, the proxy routes your connection through the university’s network, making the database “see” you as if you were on campus. Without this system, access would be limited to people physically on site, but with it, faculty and students can use the full range of library resources wherever they are, while still keeping access secure and vendor agreements intact.

A URL (web page address) will ensure an off-campus user is authenticated if it begins with the prefix for our proxy server, which is:

https://login.databases.wtamu.edu/login?url=

For instance, if you want students to access this article: 

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0361526X.2017.1338635

You need to add the prefix: 

https://login.databases.wtamu.edu/login?url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0361526X.2017.1338635

There a few known issues where the proxy does not get along well with Canvas. We are working with IT to resolves these issues as soon as possible. 

URLs

Your students may see this page when accessing a library database from Canvas:

To resolve this, simply select the link in the gray box at top of the page to open the URL in it's own window. 

Embeds

Your students may encounter the above error without the convenient link if you have used an embed code in your content, such as with Films On Demand.

If your students encounter this, please ensure that they have enough information, such as the title of the content and the database that is hosted on, so they can go to the Databases A-Z page and search for the title of the content in the database itself. 

Misconception #1: Logging into the library's website will grant you access to a database in a different tab.

The "library website" is actually about a dozen different products all masquerading as one website, not including the databases themselves. If you log into the library home page using the icon in the upper right corner of the page, you are logging into the public interface of our catalog, not the proxy, so it will not tell a database in a different tab or window that you have access.

Instead, you have to click through the library's website for an article, which will add proxies if necessary, or use the Databases A-Z list. If you look closely, all of the links on the Databases A-Z page are proxied, so it is a reliable way to send your students to a guaranteed proxied link to the database. If students are having trouble, this is the most effective solution.

Misconception #2: The URL at the top of the page is always reliable.

The proxy works by rewriting the URL of the website to keep the off-campus patrons in the proxy without having to do complicated setups. While some databases then redirect you so they appear normal, this is not true of all databases, so the URL you see on campus may be different with the URL you see off-campus. 

The most reliable solution to this is to search for the article on the library's website, and find the "permalink" option. This also means that even if the journal change publishers or platforms, the link you send your students to will always be the same. Any links to articles from the library's website will also add the proper proxy information. 

Alternatively, many faculty give the students a properly formatted citation so they can practice using the citation's format and looking up the article themselves. If you choose this path, I highly recommend scheduling one of the librarians to come to your course to give your students a refresher on how to use the library resources. 

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