Integration of online Major Reference Works in brill.com, Spring 2024: FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Integration of online Major Reference Works in brill.com, Spring 2024
When is migration happening? Will there be a period of parallel running?
How will the migration impact content updates for Major Reference Works?
Are the URLs for the online products changing?
Will DOIs still link through to the relevant content?
Will other Brill online products migrate to brill.com?
How will this impact users with personal accounts and saved searches?
What actions are expected from customers?
Do I need to make changes to my proxy server?
What actions do Shibboleth or OpenAthens customers need to take?
Do I need to update my existing links?
Will I need to download new MARC records or KBART files?
What actions do I need to take to add my library’s logos?
Cataloguing and Metadata Tools
How will MARC records be impacted by migration?
How will KBART files be impacted by the migration?
Will there be any impact on my discovery service?
Will my online products account(s) now be merged with my journals and books
I have trouble signing into my library admin account on ams.brill.com. What do I do?
How will usage reports be impacted by the migration?
Migration Information
What is changing?
In 2024 our Major Reference Works platform referenceworks.brillonline.com will be integrated in brill.com leading to user experience and improved management capabilities for institutional customers.
Improvements and features
For institutional customers:
- Counter 5 usage reporting
- Integration of Access management with Brill.com, holding information and institutional settings now centralized
- Fully compliant to accessibility standards
For end users:
- Fully compliant to accessibility standards
- Current brill.com account can be used to make use of personal tools
- Enhance search experience on publication level
When is migration happening? Will there be a period of parallel running?
Starting February 2024 there will be a period of parallel run. Brill’s MRWs will be accessible on both the new site referenceworks.brill.com as the current site referenceworks.brillonline.com.
During parallel run, the primary point of access will remain to be the current site referenceworks.brillonline.com. However, users will be able to find and access content on the new site. We will be encouraging users to discover and explore the new environment and provide feedback for future enhancements.
During the parallel running period, librarians will be able to oversee their MRW holdings on the new environment ams.brill.com.
On the official launch date all page requests to the old website will be automatically redirected to corresponding pages on the new site referenceworks.brill.com.
Expected Start parallel run: February 15, 2024
Expected Launch date: end of Q1, 2024
Will there be site downtime?
No, we do not expect users to experience any site downtime.
How will the migration impact content updates for Major Reference Works?
Content updates will not be interrupted.
Are the URLs for the online products changing?
Yes. We are switching the main domain from brillonline.com to brill.com.
Also the URLs of products and entry pages will be changing. All product and entry URLS will be redirected on the launch date. Although the redirects will last for a long time, we advise you to adjust URLS in you systems and bookmarks following the launch, but this is not an urgent matter.
Will DOIs still link through to the relevant content?
Yes, DOIs will link to the new URLs, Brill takes care of this and reregister all DOIs.
Will other Brill online products migrate to brill.com?
There are no immediate plans to do so.
How will this impact users with personal accounts and saved searches?
Personal accounts and saved searches on the current site referenceworks.brillonline.com will not be carried over to brill.com. We invite individual users to sign up with referenceworks.brill.com to make use of enhanced personal tools in the future.
What actions are expected from customers?
Please see our checklist for migration
Do I need to make changes to my proxy server?
As part of this change, some customers may need to make some changes involving access control:
EZ Proxy Customers – Please add the latest proxy stanza for referenceworks.Brill.com on the OCLC website, to your configuration file. This should ideally be completed before the Launch date.
What actions do Shibboleth or OpenAthens customers need to take?
No actions need to bet taken, we have verified that all your settings are correct.
Do I need to update my existing links?
Redirects will be in place going forward, however as best practice please update any links to reflect the new URL referenceworks.brill.com
Will I need to download new MARC records or KBART files?
It will not be necessary to download new MARC records or KBART files after migration as these utilize DOIs to point to the content. MARC records and KBART files will be available on brill.com at the start of the parallel run period.
What actions do I need to take to add my library’s logos?
If your library branding is present on brill.com, it will also show on referenceworks.brill.com
Cataloguing and Metadata Tools
All publications on referenceworks.brill.com are available as:
- Title lists: Customers will be able to access a list all publications on referenceworks.brill.com document.
- KBART files: Customers will be able to download the latest available KBART files
- MARC records packages: MARC records will be available to download, organized by both update date and subject collection.
- MARC records tailored download: Customers will be able to download MARC records for all titles on the platform their institution has access to in a single download.
- Usage reports: COUNTER5 usage reports will be available for customers to download.
How will MARC records be impacted by migration?
It will not be necessary to download new MARC records after launch.
How will KBART files be impacted by the migration?
It will not be necessary to download new KBART files post-migration.
Will there be any impact on my discovery service?
We have notified our discovery partners to ensure continuity of discovery services at the time of migration. All metadata will be provided to OCLC, Ex Libris, and EBSCO. In addition, redirects are in place to automatically direct any links to the new URLs.
Account Management
Will my online products account(s) now be merged with my journals and books
account(s)?
Yes this is indeed the case. Please contact Brill Sales Support if you discover that you have separate accounts for Books, Journals and Major Reference Works
I have trouble signing into my library admin account on ams.brill.com. What do I do?
Contact sales@brill.com for assistance.
Usage Reports
How will usage reports be impacted by the migration?
At the start of the parallel run period, usage statistics will become available for both the current and the new environment as there will be usage on both platforms simultaneously. For this reason our aim is to keep this parallel run period as short as possible.
The current environment will still be recording Counter 4 events and these can still be accessed and downloaded via the current way by accessing subs.brillonline.com.
Historic usage reports (Counter 4) on the current platform will remain available on subs.brillonline.com for at least 2 calendar years.
The new environment will start recording and providing Counter 5 reports and these will be part of the current Counter reports as provided by Brill.com.
As Counter 4 data and Counter 5 data are incompatible, historic Counter data will not be migrated to the new brill.com environment.