Why am I being asked for a login/password
This is one of the more common problems that off-campus students encounter and, unfortunately, there are several possible explanations and solutions and often the best strategy is to contact the librarian for troubleshooting help.
Dan the Librarian (for students in Distance Education programs)
lib-disted@uiowa.edu or 877-807-9587
Main Library Information Desk
319-335-5299 or http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/contact/ask
Here are some troubleshooting ideas that might also help.
Links to online articles and books need to have a section in their web address or URL that triggers the library’s proxy server, which asks for your HawkID and password and makes the target database think you are on campus.
- Check to see if the link starts with http://proxy.lib.uiowa.edu… or http://purl… The rest of the web address can be quite long and varied. If the web address does not start one of those ways, try adding “http://proxy.lib.uiowa.edu/login?url=” before the rest of the web address so that it looks like http://proxy.lib.uiowa.edu/login?url=http://www.your.web.address.edu/yadda/yadda.
- If that does not work, try looking up the electronic book in the library’s InfoHawk Catalog or try looking for online journal articles in our Article Locator.
You can always call us for help, too.
Have any of you had problems with access to databases or found good ways to overcome problems accessing library resources? Tell us about it in a comment.
Dan the Librarian
