[Web4lib] Web browsers and library databases

[Edward Spodick]

We have had several with MSIE-specific limitations, some of which truly failed on other OS/Browser combos even when spoofing the MSIE useragent string.

Most of these have since become more accessible, but not all.  Several have limitations now only on older browsers of various flavors (e.g. Telford e-journals, among many others), but that's fine here.

WIPSGlobal requires MSIE for their search function.  They also require Windows-only plugins for a few added features, but the search functionality should be more cross-browser. (http://www.wipsglobal.com/)

Until fairly recently (12-18 months ago?), one of our most popular databases was MSIE only, although some functions worked on the older MSIE for MacOS - not the search function.  Fortunately, they finally redesigned everything to work more cross-browser.  The database was WiseNews at http://libwisenews.wisers.net/

Our reference librarians have flagged certain resource descriptions with MSIE-specific limitation notes.  The main web site for one of the two terrestrial television broadcast companies in Hong Kong requires MSIE to view their programming streams, although I have managed to spoof them a few times with Safari on a Mac - but with much less functionality.

There are also several banks here whose online banking requires a windows platform with MSIE, but I am not sure those would fall in the purview of your question.

Basically, these sort of access problems for electronic subscriptions seem to be fading out, fortunately for my workload.  :)

Edward F Spodick, Information Technology Manager
Hong Kong University of Science & Technology Library
lbspodic at ust.hk  tel:852-2358-6743 fax:852-2358-1043


p.s. -- Oh, yes - I should mention that the library catalog of the National LIbrary of China was running a very highly rated international ILS for several years (Ex Libris), but the interface was configured in such a way that only MSIE could view the catalog, or even get amn interface which was not garbage characters.  MSIE on both Windows and Macintosh worked, but nothing else.  That *really* gave me a negative opinion of that product for a number of years, even though I was pretty sure this could have been configured to work for all. 
This is a sample page which used to fail, and now works:
http://210.82.118.4:8080/F
They now have a specific English language login, although the URL is a bit much
<http://210.82.118.4:8080/F-?func=option-update-lng&file_name=find-m&F2=pc-latin&P_CON_LNG=ENGlogin-session>



At 12:56 PM -0400 8/13/07, Wright, Jen wrote:
> 
>We have a few resources that have had Firefox issues, but they are
>getting up to speed.  Tutor.com looks like it just added Firefox support
>and we can't order downloadable media from Overdrive in Firefox. 
>
>-Jen
>
>Jennifer R Wright
>Electronic/Digital Resources Coordinator
>Free Library of Philadelphia
>215.686.2874
>www.library.phila.gov
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
>[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Sara Brownmiller
>Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 11:35 AM
>To: web4lib at webjunction.org
>Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Web browsers and library databases
>
>Thanks to all who have responded.  Responses seem to focus primarily on
>the configurability of Web browsers.
>
>What I am most interested in learning is whether you are aware of
>databases or electronic resources that you have licensed that will not
>work with a specific browser, or version of a browser.  For example, we
>subscribe to Mediamark Reporter.  To generate the reports, you must use
>Internet Explorer or Netscape.  When you try to connect to the site with
>Firefox, the site does a browser check, tells you that you don't meet
>one of the access requirements, and suggests that you make an
>adjustment.
>
>Does anyone know of any other resources that have such restrictions?
>
>Sara
>
>
>>
>> On 8/6/07, Sara Brownmiller <snb at uoregon.edu> wrote:
> >> We are upgrading our public workstations this fall and are reviewing
>>> whether to offer only Internet Explorer or whether to also offer
>>> Firefox.  Has anyone compiled a list of databases/resources typically
>
>>> offered by a library and whether they are fully compatible with the
>>> major browsers and versions?  For example, do most databases perform
>>> as expected in Internet Explorer 7, as opposed to 6?  Do you get good
>
>>> performance with Firefox?  Do you know of databases/resources that
>>> specifically have problems either with IE7 or with Firefox?
>>>
>>> I've done some quick Web searching and haven't seen anything that
>>> might provide an answer.
>>>
>>> thanks, Sara
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>>
>>> Sara Brownmiller  . . . . . . . . . . . University of Oregon
>>> Libraries Director, Library Systems . . . . . . . 1299 University of
>>> Oregon Women's Studies Librarian . . . . . . . Eugene, OR 97403-1299
>>> snb at uoregon.edu . . . . . . . . . . . . 541-346-2368 (voice)
> >> _______________________________________________