Friday, April 30, 2021

Gale Database access that use to work without any login now is asking for one. What gives?

My school is very lucky that we access some of Gale's databases via our membership in our State Library system.  We have been able to access them without any logins, then when we went remote/hybrid, some instances occurred on devices that prompted the user to login with their member name and password. Now, if you had a library card from the local library that worked and gave you access but if you did not have one you were out of luck.  When I started to look into this problem, it did not just occur on certain types of devices.  It happen on ipads, macbooks...mostly Apple stuff with the user using the Safari browser and it wasn't happening to a lot of students, just a handful.  I don't know why I though of this but I went into (i.e. on iPad) Settings, Safari  and scrolled down until I saw Location.  Then the lightbulb when off! On the devices that were asking for a login the setting for Location Access on All Websites was set to Deny.  When I changed it to Ask or Allow and tried the database again, they got in and was not requires to provide any name or password.  So that is my theory and I'm sticking with it!.

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