This past weekend, OCLC had a service maintenance that apparently has un-done a feature in their standard configuration.
Normally, patrons on campus and accessing via the proxy server or VPN for the campus do not see the “<Campus> Library authentication needed” dialog box (see attached). This only displays for one of the campus Melvyl instances (e.g., ucla.worldcat.org
or ucmerced.worldcat.org) if the IP address of the user’s workstation does not match the IP ranges for that campus.
Today, we’ve received reports from almost all of the UC campuses indicating that everyone accessing the campus Melvyl instance is seeing the “Library authentication needed” message even if accessing from a valid campus IP address.
We’ve reported this problem to OCLC customer support for action. OCLC has indicated that they are aware of the problem and that their operations team is working on resolving the problem. At the present time, there is no ETA for a fix.
Please note that the display of the message does not affect the ability to use the Melvyl instance. Users not affiliated with a campus can still use the Melvyl instance by clicking the
ENTER AS GUEST for library materials and free resources; NO LOGIN NEEDED link that displays beneath the “Sign in to <campus> Library” button.
We will send a follow-up email when we have additional details. Please share this information with your colleagues.
Jayne Dickson
CDL Information Services
California Digital Library
University of California
510.987.0550