[WEB4LIB] Referer URL: update

[Dan Lester]

At 08:50 PM 4/24/99 -0700, Wes Edens wrote:
>I just came across a great online article that clearly communicates how 
>this technique works in practice:
><http://dmcpl.dayton.lib.oh.us/~kambitsch/referral.html>
>It's my hope that within 6 months, this means of access will be offered 
>routinely by database vendors.

Thanks for the reference to the Dayton page.   It is indeed a good 
summary.   We happen to like the way ours is working, and think that 
requiring patrons to authenticate for each database is a good thing.  We 
log each authentication (date, time, and database only....nothing about the 
user) and the stats derived therefrom are becoming important in the total 
view of database usage for retention, etc.   And running the in house 
workstations through a proxy server gives stats on those connections.  We 
do miss out on any from other campus locations, as they don't require 
authentication, but don't run thru our proxy server.   But management loves 
both sets of stats.

Yes, vendors give stats....but the quality and utility of those varies 
widely, as I'm sure all have noticed.  o-(

cheers

dan



--
Good, Fast, and Cheap: Which two of the three would you like?
Dan Lester, 3577 East Pecan, Boise, ID 83716 USA 208-383-0165
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