Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2026 17:48:58 +0000
To: CODE4LIB_at_LISTS.CLIR.ORG
Hi, We moved from self-hosted to OCLC-hosted EZProxy a few years ago, and we did set up forwarding from the old self-hosted instance, but we also made a spreadsheet and going by most to least use, worked to update the address with each vendor. It was a bit of a pain, and we do still find the occasional database that has the old address, but other than that it’s worked out well. We did also send out a message to all our departmental contacts that they would need to update their Canvas links to databases, and ran link-checker in our LibGuides to catch the old addresses and update them. Much less work to maintain EZProxy in the long run. Best, Margaret Margaret Alexander | Discovery Librarian (she/hers) University of Oregon | Libraries Knight Library | 1501 Kincaid St 97403-1299 541-346-1864 (vm) malexan4@uoregon.edu<mailto:malexan4@uoregon.edu> | uoregon.edu<https://www.uoregon.edu/> Please note: I work M-F, 8-4:30 PST, several days from home [University of Oregon Logo Wordmark]<https://www.uoregon.edu/> From: Code for Libraries <CODE4LIB_at_LISTS.CLIR.ORG> On Behalf Of Coral Sheldon-Hess Sent: Friday, February 27, 2026 9:41 AM To: CODE4LIB_at_LISTS.CLIR.ORG Subject: [CODE4LIB] Forward EZproxy request to OpenAthens Hi! We're considering a move away from self-hosted EZproxy and one-off Shibboleth SSO connections to our vendors, to OpenAthens. People are, understandably, concerned about the migration. Obviously, we'll change the links we control, but we ZjQcmQRYFpfptBannerStart This message originated outside the UO email ecosystem. Use caution with links and attachments. Learn more about this email warning tag<https://service.uoregon.edu/TDClient/2030/Portal/KB/ArticleDet?ID=141098>. Report Suspicious <https://us-phishalarm-ewt.proofpoint.com/EWT/v1/C5qS4YX3!OkmJYdqqId3Bcgar-RM6KjDAr0rpSmvYdWnqpiTnb_Ar7f-S3YfjX3h40eK1grLA5VWgnwI_y0FdzmUzAzHtWOHs6Nt1q0uAKz8MUkuDTgTgHQ$> ZjQcmQRYFpfptBannerEnd Hi! We're considering a move away from self-hosted EZproxy and one-off Shibboleth SSO connections to our vendors, to OpenAthens. People are, understandably, concerned about the migration. Obviously, we'll change the links we control, but we don't control our faculty colleagues' Canvas shells, for instance. Since we host (and control, down to Apache settings) our own proxy server, is there some fundamental reason why we couldn't do some kind of forwarding, rewriting requests with our proxy prefix to have the OpenAthens prefix on the fly? Has anyone done this? Even if we don't do an automatic forward, I could imagine a landing page that says something in the neighborhood of "you entered EZProxyPrefix?url=https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://whatever__;!!C5qS4YX3!F6nonKxIlrItwwbcHkNz-6eBBawIgGHgbJxUR_KfNiGOgR2dLhaxewWK_otu5EZu7ljnSeu9Bq12AB36hNgoHc8$<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/whatever__;!!C5qS4YX3!F6nonKxIlrItwwbcHkNz-6eBBawIgGHgbJxUR_KfNiGOgR2dLhaxewWK_otu5EZu7ljnSeu9Bq12AB36hNgoHc8$>. Please update your link to [linked]OpenAthensPrefix?url=https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://whatever*/linked*5D__;WyU!!C5qS4YX3!F6nonKxIlrItwwbcHkNz-6eBBawIgGHgbJxUR_KfNiGOgR2dLhaxewWK_otu5EZu7ljnSeu9Bq12AB36tiT6tkg$<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/whatever*/linked*5D__;WyU!!C5qS4YX3!F6nonKxIlrItwwbcHkNz-6eBBawIgGHgbJxUR_KfNiGOgR2dLhaxewWK_otu5EZu7ljnSeu9Bq12AB36tiT6tkg$>, or alert the owner of the site that directed you here." That feels totally doable. There's no reason that couldn't work, even if it means disabling the proxy and writing our own PHP; it shouldn't even be difficult. Right? And it could stay up for as long as we feel like maintaining our server. (Just kidding, we'd count hits and take it down when they get low enough.) Is there something even simpler, that you did during your migration, that I'm overlooking? The floor is open for other opinions about OpenAthens, too. The price tag is … significant, during a bad budget cycle, so, even if all the other stars align, we may not be making the switch. If you want to tell me horror stories so I don't feel bad about a potential "no," you'd probably be doing me a favor. 😁 Thanks! -- *Coral Sheldon-Hess* coral_at_sheldon-hess.org<mailto:coral_at_sheldon-hess.org>
