Off-campus Access to Digital Resources

1. What resources are available from off campus?
2. How do I connect to the Library's resources from off campus?
3. How do I login/authenticate to the proxy server?
4. I don't know/forgot my Tulane University username and/or password.
5. When I click on "click here (authenticate)" I get an error message.
6. My username and/or password doesn't work when I login/authenticate to the proxy server.
7. I've logged in and was using one resource without any problems, but now I'm not able to get in to additional resources.
8. Why can't I get certain years/issues/volumes of online journals?
9. Why can't I just go to the resources directly?
10. Why am I being told that the resource is full/all seats are taken?
11. Why am I having problems accessing ebook, through NetLibrary?
12. How do I report a problem/get additional assistance?

1. What resources are available from off campus?
All of our online resources should be available from on or off campus to all Tulane University affiliates - those with active email usernames and passwords. This includes resources such as online journals, databases, indexes, newspapers, ebooks, etc.

2. How do I connect to the Library's resources from off campus?
There are several ways you can get access to the Library's resources from off campus. First, you can use the free Tulane Dial-Up connection. When you use the Tulane University dial-up connection, you should only have to authenticate when you first dial in. After that, you will be treated as though you are on the campus. To authenticate yourself with the proxy server, you will need your Tulane University email name and password for your email account. You can find information on how to configure the dial-up connection on the Technology Services web page: Getting Connected.

You can also use any other Internet Service Provider (ISP), such as AOL, BellSouth, a cable modem, or a DSL provider. If you use one of these methods to access the Library's web site, you will have to login to our proxy server (see next question) in order to authenticate that you are affiliated with Tulane University.

3. How do I login/authenticate to the proxy server?
If you are off-campus and not using the Tulane dial-up connection, you will have to authenticate when you try to access any of our licensed digital resources.

To authenticate:
  a. Go to the medical library home page
  b. Look for the gold key , , on the library home page and click :"click here (authenticate)"
  c. You will be forwarded to the proxy server. The username and password you need to use are those for your Tulane email account. So, if my email was: superlibrarian@tulane.edu, my username is superlibrarian and my password is the same one that I would use to access my email.
  d. Once you have logged on, you will be returned to the page you clicked the link from, in this case, the Library's homepage.

4. I don't know/forgot my Tulane University username and/or password.
Contact the Tulane Help Desk at (504) 862-8888.

5. When I click on "click here (authenticate)" I get an error message.
If your computer network has security fire walls, you might not be able to authenticate from it. Discuss this with your Information Technology department if you have problems (tell them Tulane uses EZ-Proxy).

6. My username and/or password doesn't work when I login/authenticate to the proxy server.
If your username and password doesn't seem to be working, try to access your webmail account by going to: http://owa.tulane.edu. Make sure that you are entering your password in lower case. If you can't get into webmail contact the Tulane Help Desk at (504) 862-8888.

7. I've logged in and was using one resource without any problems, but now I'm not able to get in to additional resources.
Once you have logged on to the proxy server, you should not need to login again to use other resources. However, if you do encounter problems, try re-logging/authenticating on to the proxy server. There are several reasons you may have to log in again. A few of them are:

1. You may have been timed out of the proxy server.
2. You may have been timed out of the database you were using.
3. You may have unintentionally logged out of the proxy server by closing the database/window you were originally logged in on.

If this happens frequently, please report the problem to (504) 988-5155 or email at MEDREF@TULANE.EDU.

8. Why can't I get certain years/issues/volumes of online journals?
We do not have complete full text runs for all journals - so double-check to make sure that we really are supposed to have access to a particular journal. You can do this by looking at the years of access in the:

1. 
2. Tulane E-Journals List

Several vendors will list all of their online journals in their database, even though we don't own access to all of those journals. This understandably leads to confusion, so check both the catalog and the e-journals list to see if we truly should have access to the full text of the journal.

9. Why can't I just go to the resources directly?
The login page for the proxy server is a Tulane-branded white page with a box for a username and a box for a password, with instructions on what to use for each. If you are getting a login page that is brand specific - for example, "Please enter your ProQuest password." - this indicates that you are not going through the proxy server. Make sure you are going through the library web site first and authenticating before you get to the digital resource. Since we pay for these digital resources, they are not available to everyone with Internet access. You have access to them strictly because you are affiliated with Tulane University. While you can get to a resource directly if you are on campus, this is because you are automatically being authenticated by Tulane University's IP range. If you try to go directly to OVID for example, using your own Internet Service Provider, OVID will have no way to verify that you are affiliated with Tulane University and will not give you access. If you go through the library web site, and authenticate, this tells the vendor that you belong to the Tulane license agreement.

10. Why am I being told that the resource is full/all seats are taken?
Many of our resources have a limited number of simultaneous users - when all of the available "seats" are being used, sometimes you will get an error message and other times the product will forward you to a login screen. If this appears to be the problem, try the resource again in a few minutes for one of the available seats to open.

11. Why am I having problems accessing ebooks, through NetLibrary?
The NetLibrary interface is a bit different from our other online resources. In order to access an ebook, you may wish to create a personal account. This is an account only recognized by NetLibrary; it is NOT your Tulane University username/password. This account information can be any username and password that you want to use. For more info - netLibrary QuickStart Guide.

If you forget your username/password, you can request a reminder from NetLibrary - the library does not have access to this information, so we are unable to access/reset your NetLibrary account. Even after authenticating through the proxy server, you will still need to use your NetLibrary account information in order to check out ebooks.

12. How do I report a problem/get additional assistance?
Sometimes our online resources experience a technical problem. There might be a problem with the server, or even scheduled upgrades when a database might be unavailable for a short time. To verify a resource is not functioning, you can contact the Reference Desk (504) 988-5155 between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. each weekday to have them test whether the resource is functioning on campus. Since we have so many resources available, we rely on our patrons to let us know when they experience a problem with any of our resources. This helps us get started on restoring access as soon as possible.

For additional assistance, please see Reference Staff or contact by phone at (504) 988-5155 or email at MEDREF@TULANE.EDU. Monday-Friday from 8:00a.m.-5:00p.m.