[Web4lib] PubMed, EZ-proxy and SFX

[Carol Cooke]

Hello,

Our library is using EZ-proxy and SFX to authenticate our users and provide
them access to e-journals in PubMed.  We are having problems using some of
the newest PubMed functions (ie. RSS feeds and MyNCBI alerts) with our
current set up.  If you are using EZ-proxy and SFX with PubMed please read
on to learn more about these problems and please let us know if you have a
solution!

Currently when our users access PubMed we send them through the EZ-proxy
server to authenticate them for access to e-journals.  We ask them to
authenticate before they access PubMed so that they don't have to
authenticate each time they click on our outside tool link to full text.
The URL we use looks like this:

http://www.umanitoba.ca/libraries/online/proxy.php?http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?holding=icaumlib,icavghlib,icacshflib,icambgclib,icambvsslib&otool=icaumlib

With this portion of the URL being the proxy server URL:

http://www.umanitoba.ca/libraries/online/proxy.php?

After they authenticate the URL is modified to look like this:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.proxy2.lib.umanitoba.ca/entrez/query.fcgi?holding=icaumlib,icavghlib,icacshflib,icambgclib,icambvsslib&otool=icaumlib

Where

proxy2.lib.umanitoba.ca or proxy1.lib.umanitoba.ca indicates an
authenticated patron.

The University of Manitoba currently has 2 active proxy servers (proxy1 and
proxy2).

When a patron does a search (e.g. otitis media) and then clicks "Send to:
RSS feed" the feed URL comes out like this:

http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.proxy1.lib.umanitoba.ca/entrez/eutils/erss.cgi?rss_guid=0m-0V1qtrW5aF4ogH0ax1dwRW016TGMvMpbOgeA-Pq


In some RSS aggregators like Bloglines the "proxy1.lib.umanitoba.ca" results
in patrons trying to add the RSS feed and getting an error message.

I would like to be able to add the feed in Bloglines.  Has anyone run
across this problem before and has anyone developed a resolution?

Please reply to me directly.
Thanks for any assistance you might be able to provide.
Sincerely,
Carol

Carol A. Cooke, M.L.I.S.
Resource Development Librarian
Neil John Maclean Health Sciences Library
770 Bannatyne Ave.,
Winnipeg, MB R3E 0W3 CANADA
Tel: 204-789-3840
Fax: 204-789-3923
E-mail: Carol_Cooke at umanitoba.ca
Web: http://umanitoba.ca/libraries/health/

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