WAM (III) vs. EZProxy

[Patricia A. Tlapak]

We are in the process of considering switching from WAM (Innovative Interfaces) to EZProxy. Can anyone who has made the move share their experience? How hard was the move and how long did it take? Have you been happy with the change, both for your library users and from the management side of things? We would appreciate any information you’d be willing to share.”

Trish Tlapak
Library Technician, Discovery Services
Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center
University of Nevada, Reno
***@unr.edu
775-682-5615

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[Amy Deschenes]

Hi Trish-

We just moved from the III WAM product to EZProxy over the summer and
haven't looked back! The entire process took about a month and we had about
3 staff members working on it for 1/4 of their work time during that month.
The biggest thing with EZProxy is setting up the config file. We did an
inventory of our WAM Forward Table and built the config file line by line
using the Forward Table as our reference. I would also recommend adding
resources a few at a time that way you can test to see if everything works
as you go, rather than adding everything to the config file and then having
issues with one thing, which makes it more difficult to diagnose what's
causing the problem.

The one nice thing is that we didn't have a strict deadline of when the WAM
function would be turned off in Millennium so the transition was easier. We
had both systems running in tandem for about a week and moved things over
to EZProxy and then updated the links on our websites. If there was a lag
in updating the links on the website, the old links still worked. It's been
great using EZProxy because so many more vendors are familiar with it and
it's easier to construct the links (because you only have to prepend the
EZProxy bit, instead of using the 0- business). It's also cut down on the
number of access issues that have been reported.

If you'd like to talk more or would like to see our project task plan
please email me directly; I'd be happy to share.

Thanks,
Amy


_______________________________

Amy Deschenes
Systems & Web Applications Librarian
Simmons College Library
Boston, MA 02115
617-521-2762

Post by Patricia A. Tlapak
We are in the process of considering switching from WAM (Innovative
Interfaces) to EZProxy. Can anyone who has made the move share their
experience? How hard was the move and how long did it take? Have you been
happy with the change, both for your library users and from the management
side of things? We would appreciate any information you’d be willing to
share.”
Trish Tlapak
Library Technician, Discovery Services
Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center
University of Nevada, Reno
775-682-5615
---

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To unsubscribe, send request to ***@itec.suny.edu

[Munson, Doris]

We made the move about six years ago and I have posted to this list about the experience previously. Here's the short answers. You can search the archives for a more detailed reply.

It was a fairly painless move. WAM and EZproxy ran side-by-side for several months as we updated all our URLs and vendors. Our IT department set up the server for us, so I can't give you much information there. It took about 20 hours to create the config.txt file from scratch. Once the server was up and running, we tested it every way we could think of to get the bugs out. It then went into operation with lots of PR to get people to update their old URLs.

We are happy with the change. EZproxy is much more secure than WAM. It's easy to set up exception accounts. There are a number of commands that make EZproxy much more versatile than WAM. The listserv and its archives are a great resource if you run into problems.

Our library users are happier because they can now use their regular SSO login rather than go through Millennium with a PIN they have to remember.

If you decide to make the move, I have a sanitized config file that would get you started. I also have some EZproxy tips and tricks. I gave a presentation at ELUNA this year on the basics of EZproxy, which is posted on the ELUNA site.

Regards,
Doris

Doris Munson
Systems/Reference Librarian
Eastern Washington University
***@ewu.edu
509-359-6395




-----Original Message-----
From: Patricia A. Tlapak [mailto:***@unr.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2014 10:57 AM
To: EZProxy discussion list
Subject: [ezproxy] WAM (III) vs. EZProxy

We are in the process of considering switching from WAM (Innovative Interfaces) to EZProxy. Can anyone who has made the move share their experience? How hard was the move and how long did it take? Have you been happy with the change, both for your library users and from the management side of things? We would appreciate any information you’d be willing to share.”

Trish Tlapak
Library Technician, Discovery Services
Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center
University of Nevada, Reno
***@unr.edu
775-682-5615

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