Troubleshooting database access problems

A patron says "I can’t seem to get into any databases and I have entered my name and banner ID. I’m off campus. What can I do"

Answer: Here are some troubleshooting questions and answers:

1) "Are you going through appalnet to access library resources" If so… tell them to go directly through the library web site. There is a "glitch" with Appalnet and accessing Library Resources.

2) "Are you trying to access the databases through AppSearch?" If so… tell them there is ALSO a glitch in searching AppSearch off campus. They should go to the Databases and Articles tab and select their subject to give them a place to start searching directly.

3) "Are you getting an error message?" If so, please have them tell you the wording of the message so that it can be passed on to Systems for analysis. Be sure to get as much information as possible… name of database, browser, internet provider, how they accessed the database (i.e. AppSearch, databases page, etc), time and date.

4) "Are you typing in more than just your last name when you are authenticating yourself in the database?" If so, they need to only enter their LAST name as Username and Banner ID number as password. This is especially important since they may be registered as i.e. "Susan" in the database and they enter "Sue" instead.

5) "Have you tried other databases in this discipline?" If so, encourage them to use another one and check it. Some databases could be down for some reason. Try to recommend an alternate database to be tried.

6) "Are you going through our database pages or directly to the product (i.e. going straight to the PubMed website)"  If patrons are going directly to the site, they will have a hard time being authenticated.  Patrons should be directed to go through our webpage and through our links to the databases.

7) "Are you trying to access our databases from work?"  Many companies have protective firewalls and may be the problem in denying our patron access to our databases.