Directing Links Through the Proxy Server
Question: How do I set up links to articles or other resources - on course webpages, in Telesis, or in ERes (electronic reserves) - so that they work from off-campus?
Answer: If you need to refer another member of the University community to a document on a restricted website -- for example, if you're linking to a journal article on a course webpage in ERes -- you will need to format the link in a way that redirects them through the proxy server. If you don't do this, the links will work from on-campus, but not from off-campus.
To direct someone through the proxy server, you need to prepend the link destination with a reference to the proxy:
http://libproxy.wustl.edu/login?url=
For example:
If the URL you need to proxy is
http://www.somejournal.com/article02100
then in your web page, you would need to link to
http://libproxy.wustl.edu/login?url=http://www.somejournal.com/article02100
Here is another example, to a real article in Academic Search Premier:
URL for persistent link to this record:
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=27761174&site=ehost-live
so the link on your webpage should be:
http://libproxy.wustl.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true
&db=aph&AN=27761174&site=ehost-live (with no break or spaces in it)
Test it out, from on-campus or off:
The Myth of ADHD and the Scandal of Ritalin:
CAVEAT: If you don't put the proxy prepend on your links, users off-campus may be able to get to that resource - if they had already logged on to the proxy server during that browser session before clicking on your link. But since you can't count on that, it is a service to your users to add the proxy prepend!
ANOTHER OPTION: add the Proxy it! bookmarklet to your web browser, which allows you to easily send a URL through the proxy server - if the link you clicked on has not been formatted with this proxy prepend (such as Google Scholar results).
NOTE: Only sites which have been registered in the proxy server can be successfully referred through it. If you are working with an outside web resource that needs to be registered with the proxy, contact library.webmaster@wumail.wustl.edu. Please provide the URL you're trying to link to - and we'll let you know if we can make it work. And if you're having any problems getting a link to work, please let us know, that, too!