"Why can't I get to the full text?" Accessing library resources during a pandemic

Presented on August 13th, 2020 as part of Elsevier's Library Connect webinar series: "Librarian best practices ensure uninterrupted access to research and education." (https://libraryconnect.elsevier.com/articles/webinar-librarian-best-practices-ensure-uninterrupted-access-research-and-education) Discusses how federated access permitted students to more readily access library electronic resources during the COVID-19 pandemic, after the library closed and students were working remotely from off-campus. Will be of interest to electronic resources librarians, systems librarians, and those interested in UX, IP access, alternatives to EZProxy, federated authentication, Shibboleth, InCommon, and SeamlessAccess.

Transcript

1. “Why can’t I get to the full text?”
   accessing library resources during a pandemic
   Emily Singley
   @emilysingley
   Boston College, USA
   August, 2020
   

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2. Boston College
   • 14,600 students
   • 84% reside on campus
   

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3. Our pandemic
   • All students and faculty sent home mid-March 2020
   • All courses went fully online
   

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4. 99%
   1%
   E-resource and print usage
   E-journals and E-books
   (BR1, JR1)
   Print circulations
   Boston College libraries
   • 8 libraries
   • 3.2M volumes
   • 42K subscribed resources
   

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5. Existing infrastructure
   • IP access (EZProxy)
   • VPN
   • Shibboleth
   • InCommon federation
   • Federated access not implemented for most library vendors (exception: Elsevier)
   

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6. User experience pre-pandemic
   80%
   17%
   3%
   IP direct
   EZProxy
   Federated
   

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7. User experience pre-pandemic:
   Direct IP access (~80%)
   On-campus user navigates directly to
   resource, e.g. jstor.org
   Because IP is recognized, user has immediate full subscription access
   

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8. User experience pre-pandemic:
   EZproxy (~10-20%)
   1. User finds a resource on the library website
   3. On-campus user is not prompted to login and has full access
   2. Clicks on a proxied link: https://proxy.bc.edu/login?url=jstor.org
   

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9. User experience pre-pandemic:
   Federated access (~3%)
   user navigates directly to resource, e.g.
   sciencedirect.com
   signs in using institutional credentials (federated access)
   

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10. User experience during pandemic
    off-campus user navigates
    directly to resource, e.g.
    nature.com
    IP is not recognized; user hits paywall
    

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11. User experience during pandemic - Elsevier
    off-campus user navigates
    directly to resource, e.g.
    sciencedirect.com
    signs in using institutional credentials; has full access to content
    

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12. 329327
    180858
    Overall e-resource use declined by 45%
    March/April 2019 March/April 2020
    Usage during pandemic
    

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13. 48963
    66279
    ELSEVIER USAGE
    Elsevier usage increased 35%
    March/April 2019 March/April 2020
    

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14. 18698
    14998
    412
    20140
    MAR-19 MAR-20
    Elsevier federated access increased from 3% to 57%
    IP access Federated access
    

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15. EBSCO usage during pandemic (not federated)
    82775
    5912
    7974 5743
    PRE-PANDEMIC (FEBRUARY) PANDEMIC (MARCH)
    IP direct IP EZProxy
    

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16. How we communicated with users
    • Website featured instructions for remote access
    • Librarians communicated frequently with faculty
    • Librarians worked closely with educational technologists to optimize
    online courses
    

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17. Challenges for our students
    • Students are used to being able to go straight to a resource
    • Once off-campus, they did not understand what had
    changed
    • Usage stats as well as problem reports showed that many
    failed to access resources
    

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18. Lessons learned
    • Focused too much on improving access to physical resources (scanning,
    curbside pickup, ILL, etc.)
    • Assumed students knew how to get to online resources using library links
    • Needed to communicate more and better
    • Need more vendors accessible through institutional login
    

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19. What’s next…getting ready for Fall
    • 33% of our e-resources vendors are now both federated and IP access
    (approx. 200 out of 600 vendors)
    • Used OpenAthens service through EBSCO to accomplish this quickly
    • Librarians continue to be embedded in online course creation
    • More outreach to faculty and students
    • Teaching librarians about federated access
    

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20. SeamlessAccess.org
    • NISO-supported initiative to improve UX for federated access
    • The same “Access through your institution” button appears across
    participating vendor sites
    • Users stay logged in across vendors during their browser session
    

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21. Thank you!
    emily.singley@bc.edu
    @emilysingley
    emilysingley.net
    

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