Alma Electronic Resources Management

You need to use a proxy service, usually EZproxy or Open Athens, to provide access to licensed content when your users are coming in from outside of your campus IP ranges, which you have registered with your content vendors.

All SUNY campuses should have had their proxy set up at go-live, but you may need to change it if you switch vendors (e.g. from OCLC's EZproxy to Open Athens), or if you switch from a self-hosted version of EZproxy to a hosted version.

When changing proxies, it's best to set up a new entry in the Integration Profiles, rather than editing/changing your old proxy, in case you need to either revert back to the previous version or use both proxies simultaneously during your switchover.

Add Proxy workflow:

• Go to Configuration->General->External Systems->Integration Profiles
• Click on Add Integration Profile at the top of the list of integrations
• Choose Integration Type = Resolver Proxy
• Give the profile a name
• Leave the "default" box unchecked until you're ready to make this profile your default proxy
• Click Next 
• Choose your Proxy Server Type (usually EZproxy or Open Athens Redirector)
• Enter your new proxy URL. Note that you don't need the = sign at the end of it because Alma automatically adds that in your links.
• If you have a specific proxy IP, enter that. If you do not have a specific IP address, enter 000.000.000.000
• Choose Use Proxy = Selective. You want to be able to choose when you want to apply the proxy in your electronic collection service settings.

Example of page 2 of the proxy integration profile:

Once you're ready to switch your default to the new proxy, go back and edit your new entry and check the "default" checkbox on the first tab:

To set up your proxy for Link in Record content, which is managed in the Central Discovery Index (CDI) instead of Alma, go to Configuration->Discovery->Other->Central Index and proxy set-up.

In the Use Proxy section:

• Choose your default proxy
• Check the box for "use proxy for CDI links"
• Check the second box if you only want the proxy to be applied when a user is outside of your campus IP range, which is recommended.
• Check the box to prevent the proxy from being used for Open Access content. If you don't check this box, the proxy will be applied to content that isn't registered with your proxy provider, and the links will fail.

Definitions:

• Self-hosted proxy: your campus hosts the proxy software (usually EZproxy) on a local server and is responsible for the following:
  • Software updates, including both the EZproxy software and monthly Windows updates
  • Security certificate
  • Changes to proxy stanzas. Note that it is vital to keep your stanzas up to date because database urls will update automatically in Alma and your linking will fail if you have not updated your proxy stanzas to match the changes.
  • Note that any public-facing server is a potential attack point, and your campus may want to reduce their publicly accessible servers as much as possible
• Hosted proxy: the proxy service is hosted for you by a vendor, who does the following:
  • Manages software updates
  • Manages security certificates
  • Automatically updates proxy stanzas or Open Athens linking for you. If you purchase a new database, you will need to let the vendor know so that they can activate the resource stanza for you, or, in the case of Open Athens, you can add it yourself. Note that you will still need to be aware of database url/platform updates so that you can make changes to your A-Z list or static links in your library webpages.

Authentication:

• Both self-hosted or hosted proxy can be used with your campus authentication system, such as SAML.

Once your new proxy is up and running, you'll need to update it in the following locations:

• Database vendor admin modules:
  • Add new IP to authorized IP listing
  • Add new proxy URL and/or replace defunct proxy URL
  • Some vendors may not offer admin modules and you may need to contact their support staff to have them make the change
  • Note that it takes two weeks for Elsevier (ScienceDirect) admin module changes to go into effect
• Libguides: under Admin, System Settings, Proxy & Library Systems, Proxy URL
• IP Registry: add your new IP if you have an IP registry account
• OLIS/SLS: OLIS tracks of campus proxy information for SUNYConnect, though we will not make the vendor updates for you unless you have a support contract with us. Contact us at info@sunyolis.libanswers.com. We will update your proxy IP for access to the 2003 SUNY Press subscription package.

Make sure to change your proxy in the databases before changing in Alma, or your linking from Primo will fail.

SLS FAQs:

• What is the process for migrating to a new electronic resources proxy?