Athens self-registration

This page provides information on the Athens Self-Registration Project. This is overseeing the procedure of changing the Athens accounts structure across the West Midlands Region to fit in with National procedures. If anyone has any further questions then please feel free to contact Pam Prior at p.prior@hsrc.org.uk

What Is Happening?

The Athens usernames currently used within the West Midlands region (those beginning with hsr) are being phased out in favour of a self-registration process whereby library users will go through a web-based registration process themselves and be provided with NHS usernames and passwords.

Why Is This Happening?

This is happening because it is a requirement for us to use Athens in this way in order to simplify the provision of the National Core Content. It also provides greater administrative control to individual libraries and brings us in line with the rest of the country's Athens provision. Athens also prefer this method of delivery as it enables the various providers to get a better picture of activity and usage.

What Is The New Registration Process?

Users can register at http://www.athens.nhs.uk/region/nhswmr

Users will register by accessing an NHS regional web site and entering their details and will be automatically issued with a username and password.

Athens Self Registration - a slideshow prepared by Scott Gibbons
demonstrating the self-registration process.

Will Current Users Have To Re-register?

The current West Midlands Athens usernames beginning with HSR will become defunct at the end of May. All current users will have to re-register under the new system. They should be able to do this themselves.

Will Users Be Able To Self-register From Home?

Users will be able to register from anywhere where they have internet access. If they are registering from an NHSnet networked computer their access should be immediate. If they are registering from an outside computer their details will have to be confirmed by their administrator and it will therefore take a little longer for their account to become fully operational.

How Can We Stop Users Registering Under False Details?

As the process is a self-registration one we cannot stop people mis-registering, but it would be to their disadvantage in many cases were they so to do. The administration of accounts at the local level should also throw up any anomalies in statistics, which should bring any instances of this to light.

Who Will Act As Administrators?

We are hoping that each library will administrate their own users on a local level. Here at the Regional Library Services Development Unit we will provide assistance and will still be administrating the accounts on a wider regional level.

Will I Get Training To Act As An Administrator?

We are still waiting to hear from Athens on what the exact administrator training situation will be. However, it is envisaged that representatives from each area will attend administrator training sessions and cascade these skills down to the individual libraries.

Will I Be Able To Compile Statistics of Users?

Statistics will be compiled automatically by Athens for each administration account. Statistics will therefore be available on every level, from the regional to the local. An Administrator will therefore be able to access their own statistics at any time.

How Long Will The New Accounts Last For?

There will be the option on the self-registration page to enter a date for the end of the user's contract, and the expiry date will then be set at that. This option is not compulsory and if left blank then default expiry dates will apply. Default expiry dates for accounts will be set according to the type of user. The normal default length will be one year, but some categories such as students and doctors on rotation will be shorter. Students will have an expiry date of three months and will not be able to over-ride this by entering contract expiry date.

What Will Happen To Current Saved Searches?

This is down to the service provider and we are currently in discussion with Dialog in an attempt to ensure that current Dialogue saved searches can be transferred to the new accounts, although ultimately this may not be possible. Because of this we would advise that all saved searches are noted in order that they may be rerun.

What If My Library Decides to Buy Further Electronic Resources?

With the new accounts being administrated on a local level it will be very easy to add purchases by individual libraries into their users' portfolios of resources. Before buying an electronic resource it is a good idea to check that it is Athens compliant (the providers should be able to tell you this) in order to ensure that it will be an easy process to cascade the resource to your users.

Publicity materials for your library to download and display are available here.

A4 publicity poster - This is in word format and space has been left for libraries to add personal contact details at the bottom and possibly to put a local NHS banner across the bottom of the document.

E-mailshot - This is in Notepad form to be copied across to an e-mail programme if you have records of your Athens users' e-mail addresses. Again this message can be personalised for each library.