Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Our database web addresses have changed! Make sure to update your bookmarks.

Web Address Changes for Most Subscription Databases

Hi! The CSM Library has moved to a new server for authenticating student, staff, and faculty access to subscription databases.

What does this mean for you?

If you navigate to the database you are using (for example, Academic Search Premier, or Ethnic NewsWatch) by following links from the Library website or research guide, there should be no changes for you. These links have already been updated. If you do have a problem, please let us know.

However, if you have bookmarked your favorite links or keep a list of them in WebAccess or some other webliography (a list of web resources), you will likely need to update your links so you don't encounter an error message, or otherwise have problems accessing databases from off campus.

404 error message with planet in space

How to recognize the new link

The new links will have a different "proxy" or authentication prefix. There is one exception, which is the Safari ebook collection, which will stay the same.

An example for the Access Science database
The "proxy" url is a found at the beginning of the database url as a prefix. This is what the old proxied link looks like for the Access Science database:
http://ezproxy.plsinfo.org:2048/login?url=http://www.accessscience.com

A proxied url, when you are off campus, will allow you to login with your library card account and PIN, so you can access the Access Science database. Notice that there are two instances of "http" in the link above. 

The first instance is for the proxy url, which ends with an equal sign. This url has changed.
OLD proxy url: http://ezproxy.plsinfo.org:2048/login?url=
NEW proxy url: http://ezproxy.collegeofsanmateo.edu/login?url=

The second instance is the database web address. The database web address will stay the same.
http://www.accessscience.com

To update the link, just replace the the old proxy url with the new proxy url. The updated proxy link for Access Science is

What you should do

For any of your bookmarks or webliographies that include proxied links to CSM Library databases, either create the bookmarks again from scratch, using the links provided on the CSM Library database page, or update manually by replacing the old proxy url with the new proxy url. Depending on your resource type, you may be able to use the find and replace feature on your application.

Remember that the Safari ebook Collection has not been impacted by this change. Its link will stay the same.

Need help?

Need help updating your bookmarks or other web resource lists? Contact a CSM Librarian.

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