Harper Adams University
Grant trouble-free access to all your library's e-resources
"The results of EZproxy have been brilliant! The feedback from our patrons has been impressive."
Curwen Thomas
Systems Librarian, Harper Adams University
Students and researchers want to be able to access information remotely anywhere, anytime. This is especially the case for courses run by Harper Adams University, which take place predominantly outside the classroom. With students off campus, the university faced an issue of limited access to e-resources. Considering the sheer cost of e-resources to libraries, the university wanted to ensure users have access to these resources as easily and frequently as possible.
Harper Adams University's authentication system, OpenAthens, did not offer a viable proxy system, so the university's students had limited access to the library's e-resources off campus. Primarily, they had difficulty accessing e-resources provided by US publishers who authenticate via IP addresses.
A member of the staff had previously used EZproxy® and thought that this would be the ideal solution. Because EZproxy works seamlessly alongside OpenAthens, the library now offers an improved service for its users. And the library staff members appreciate how little they had to do to set up and run EZproxy. "Getting started was very easy. I contacted OCLC, who set up the hosted server," explained Curwen Thomas, Systems Librarian.
"EZproxy is such an easy system to set up, configure and use."
Once OCLC established the server, Curwen explained, "I had to provide a list of all the various resources we wanted to connect to, and then a test page was set up. I also had to advise the various providers that we needed to add the IP address of the server." Curwen also noted, "The first run of testing was 60% successful. Most issues were due to incorrect URLs, and this was easily resolved."
By implementing EZproxy, Harper Adams University was able to offer a single sign-in solution for its users, leading to fewer sign-in problems. Library users now use a familiar sign-in process and are able to access the e-resources they want whenever they want them, whether they're on campus or not.
Services used by Harper Adams University
- Supports a university focused on teaching agriculture
- Provides access to around 35,000 books, nearly 2,000 print journals, and 19,000 online journals and databases that are relevant to the university's courses
- Caters to more than 4,000 students
- Offers students online subject guides on agriculture; animal and veterinary sciences; business; countryside and the environment; engineering; food, leisure, tourism and adventure recreation and rural enterprise and land management
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