It is Time to Update your Browsers

March 27, 2003 Author: CDLCategories:

Vendors are removing support for older browser versions, e.g., Netscape 4.x. The removal of support for older browser versions may cause problems for UC library users in locales that have not yet moved to the most recent browser versions in their public areas and training rooms. These changes will have a negative impact on the work of library staff and researchers alike.
Here are some examples of recent changes in browser requirements:
Ovid:
Ovid has just announced a change in their browser support:
Effective June 30, 2003, Ovid’s minimum browser requirements will be upgraded to Internet Explorer 5.x and above, and Netscape 6.x and above. Some of Ovid’s new features also require JavaScript and cookies to be enabled.
CSA:
For the Internet Database Service Version 6.0 (IDS 6.0), released last fall, CSA recommends using Netscape 5.0 or newer, or Internet Explorer 6.0 or newer. CSA’s IDS 6.0 contains advanced features that are not compatible with the old browsers, and users may get random errors depending on which browser is used.
Melvyl-T
Melvyl-T requires recent versions of browsers to view special characters:
To view special characters, e.g., accented Western characters and Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, in Melvyl-T we recommend the most recent versions of Internet Explorer or Netscape be installed on your computer (IE 5.0 and above and Netscape 6.0 and above). In addition, you must have a font that can display the characters. A free font that displays most of the characters in Melvyl-T records is Ariel Unicode MS, which is supplied with Office 2000, or can be obtained from the Microsoft site. This font can be used on Windows or Macintosh computers. Some older browsers and older computers can make use of the character displays described here but it may be necessary to download fonts for individual languages one at a time.
Not sure what browser version to choose for upgrading?
The following browsers support most of the web standards created by the World Wide Web Consortium including CSS, XHTML, and the DOM (a means of controlling the behavior of web pages):
Mozilla
http://www.mozilla.org/
IE6 or higher for Windows
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.asp
IE5 or higher for Macintosh
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/ie/ie_default.asp?navindex=s7a
Netscape 6 or higher for all platforms
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/download.jsp