Troubleshoot Common Problems

Follow the suggestions below to diagnose problems with electronic resources. If you are unable to diagnose a problem yourself, you can help California Digital Library support staff and vendor support staff resolve your problem more quickly by following these suggestions.

See sections below:

• Ejournals
• Databases

Ejournals

The most frequently reported problem with ejournals occurs when users cannot access the full text of the University of California's licensed titles. Common examples include: when you are prompted for a User Name and Password, a message indicates that "your subscription has expired," or "you do not have an electronic subscription for this resource," etc.; no full text option (button or icon) is provided or you are given the opportunity to purchase the article; a database has a link to the article, but the article is not available on the publisher's web site.

Questions to consider when analyzing the problem:

• Does your campus have a subscription for online access to the ejournal? If so, what is the type of access, i.e., individual campus subscription or systemwide (CDL) license?
• What are the dates covered by the online resource subscription?
• Is there a time lag between the issue date and when the vendor updates the ejournal web site?

Step 1: Check to see if your campus should have access to the electronic resource. In the Melvyl® Catalog, do a journal title search (select yes for "words as phrase") for the journal. When the record displays, look to see if an "Available Online" link is part of the library holdings listed for your campus.

Step 2: Once you've determined that your campus should have electronic access and you've verified the type of subscription (individual campus or systemwide), be sure to check the date (journal issue) of the article. Records in the Melvyl Catalog include the valid dates of coverage. If the issue falls outside the coverage dates, you'll need to obtain a print version of the article.

Step 3: If you've determined that the full text should be available and the problem is that you are prompted for a user name and password, or a message displays indicating that your subscription has expired or you do not have a subscription for online access, then follow the steps below.

• Individual campus subscription: If it is an individual campus subscription, notify the Acquisitions Department (or whomever handles the contracting for electronic content at your campus).
• Systemwide (CDL) subscription: If it is a systemwide subscription, notify the CDL. For more information, see the section on reporting a new problem.

If the problem is that no full text option (button or icon) is present, or that a link to the article exists in a database but the article is not available on the publisher's web site, check to see if this is a recent issue of the journal. If so, check back a few issues to see if full text buttons are available and that the article links function correctly in older issues of the journal. Some vendors (Kluwer, for example) take a while to make the full text available.

If the previous issues provide a functioning full text option and the newer issues do not, chances are that the full text is simply not yet available on the publisher's web site. If this is the case, you'll want to advise the user of the best way to obtain a print copy of the article.

Databases

Possible problems with databases include: an inability to connect to the database at all; the database displays error or unusual messages; or the database seems not to function correctly.

If you can't connect to the database at all and the database is an individual campus subscription, contact your Acquisitions Department for assistance. If it is a systemwide subscription, see the section on reporting a new problem for more information.

If you can connect to the database, but receive error or unusual messages, or the database seems not to function correctly, call the vendor's technical support or customer service department — this information is usually available on the database's informational screens. When you contact the vendor directly, they can begin investigating the problem immediately.