Catalog Maintenance – August 22

When: Friday, August 22 from 1 am – 2 am PT

What: SirsiDynix is completing system maintenance that will affect the library catalog.

Impact: The catalog will be available for searching but “My Account” features like placing holds, renewing items, or accessing your account will be down.

The Electronic Resources webpage and the Discovery Service search box on the library website will be available.

Thank you for your patience while we improve the site’s security, reliability, and performance. If you have questions about items you borrowed, contact circ@westernu.edu.

 

ScienceDirect not working with federated login

UPDATE: Federated access for ScienceDirect is now working as expected. 8/14/25 8:33am

Federated access via ScienceDirect is not working. This means that when you are trying to access a ScienceDirect article via the Pumerantz Library Discovery Service (search box on the homepage), PubMed, or another database, you are directed to enter your institution information, but it never takes you to the article. We have created a screencast of the problem.

To access ScienceDirect articles, you will need to open a ScienceDirect session with an OpenAthens redirector link: https://go.openathens.net/redirector/westernu.edu?url=https://www.sciencedirect.com (also found on the Electronic Resources page). You can then go back to PubMed, Pumerantz Library Discovery Service, or another database and will be able to access ScienceDirect articles.

We are working on fixing this problem. We will update this blog when it has been resolved.

Catalog Maintenance – August 18

When: Monday, August 18 from 1 am – 2 am PT

What: SirsiDynix is completing system maintenance that will affect the library catalog.

Impact: The catalog will be unavailable during maintenance. You will not be able to place holds, renew items, or access your account.

The Electronic Resources webpage and the Discovery Service search box on the library website will be available.

Thank you for your patience while we improve the site’s security, reliability, and performance. If you have questions about items you borrowed, contact circ@westernu.edu.

ILLiad Maintenance – August 15 & 16

When: Friday, August 15 at 8 pm to Saturday, August 16 at 3 am PT.

What: OCLC is performing planned maintenance affecting ILLiad.

Impact: ILLiad may be intermittently unavailable during maintenance. You might not be able to submit or access your requests.

Thank you for your patience while we improve the site’s security, reliability, and performance. If you have questions about your requests, contact ill@westernu.edu.

EBSCO System Maintenance - August 1

EBSCO will be performing scheduled maintenance on Friday, August 1st starting at 3:00 AM and expected to last approximately 2 hours. During the maintenance window customers may lose access for a duration that is expected to last less than 10 minutes. Access should automatically restore once the maintenance is complete. 

This will effect the following products:

• Academic Search Elite
• EBSCO Discovery Service (search box on the library homepage)
• Alt HealthWatch
• Business Source Elite
• CINAHL
• EBSCO eBooks
• ERIC
• Health Source: Consumer Edition
• Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition
• Newspaper Source
• PsycInfo
• Regional Business News

If you are have problems logging in after the maintenance window, please contact reference@westernu.edu.

PubMed and NCBI Database Maintenance - July 26

When: Saturday, July 26 starting at 3 am PT for 12 or more hours

What: NCBI will be taking all databases offline for website maintenance, including PubMed.

Impact: Starting at 3 am PT, maintenance will commence and is anticipated to last 12 or more hours. During this time, users may experience interrupted access or degraded performance across a range of NLM resources, including databases, search tools, submission systems, and programmatic services. Visit NCBI Insights for more information.

Other resources will be available on the Electronic Resources webpage and the Discovery Service search box on the library website.

Thank you for your patience while NCBI improves the site’s security, reliability, and performance. 

Contact: If you have questions about using electronic resources, contact reference@westernu.edu.

Wiley access issue

UPDATE: Wiley is back up and the link on the Electronic Resources page has been changed back to the proxied one. 7/2/25 12:50pm

Wiley Online Library is currently experiencing a Cloudflare error and is inaccessible via the proxy server both on and off campus. We have updated the link on the Electronic Resources page to go through OpenAthens. The provider is aware of the issue and is currently working on a solution. We will update this blog when access has been restored via the proxy server.