Early in July, we shared some information about upcoming changes to the SCLS authentication system for Online Resources.
Here's an update on the changes we were making:
- Authenticating LINKcat OverDrive users against the live Koha database (instead of against yesterday's data) - still in progress
- Making updates with vendors and scripts to improve availability of vendor-provided COUNTER-compliant library statistics - done (more info)
- Sending BadgerLink traffic straight to BadgerLink (as opposed to SCLS authenticating users and sending them to the vendor) - done (more info)
- Eventually, doing live lookups of LINKcat patrons against Koha instead of against yesterday's exported patron data - done (more info below)
Live lookups of LINKcat patrons for authenticating Online Resources
On August 21st, we modified the authentication script so that when we look up a LINKcat patron, we check them against Koha (current data) instead of against our patron authentication database (yesterday's data). The end result is that if a patron renews their card or changes their home library or gets a new card, they'll be able to use Online Resources again almost immediately. The exception to this rule right now is OverDrive -- work to do live lookups for LINKcat patrons is still in progress for OverDrive.
Database statistics dashboard
Jody is developing a dashboard for database statistics which we hope to roll out in late fall. If all goes well, this dashboard should include vendor-provided COUNTER-compliant statistics for many resources including Ancestry, Chilton, Consumer Reports, eBooks on EBSCO, Flipster, Literature Resource Center, NoveList Plus, and OverDrive. Eventually this dashboard will replace our less-than-ideal "gate count" usage statistics we pull from our script logs. Statistics for other library-subscribed Online Resources should be available to subscribing libraries directly from the vendor (Mango, Transparent Language, Safari, Morningstar, etc).
