The purpose of the BCTC EZproxy is to provide off-campus access to library information resources (such as full-text electronic journal articles databases). These resources are restricted to BCTC students, staff, and faculty use only.
Logging in via the BCTC EZProxy is only necessary if you are an off-campus user. If you use library resources from an on-campus computer, your computer is identified as being on the BCTC college network and you can access the resources directly without having to log in to the BCTC EZproxy. However, if you want to use restricted library resources from an off-campus computer you will be prompted to log into the BCTC EZProxy first, by using your username and password (the same Peoplesoft username and password you use for your KCTCS college e-mail).
Quick Instructions:
Go to our articles web page at the BCTC LRC website: http://www.bluegrass.kctcs.edu/LCC/LIB/articles.html . Click on a link for any BCTC proxy-accessible database, such as InfoTrac Expanded Academic ASAP. When prompted at the BCTC EZproxy login page, input your username and password into the boxes. Your login and password are the same as the login and password you use for your KCTCS e-mail access.
Students please note:
Your KCTCS E-Mail Account must be fully activated in order for you to access the BCTC Proxy. If you are a new BCTC student, you will be able to access the proxy server via your username and password only after you activate your e-mail login and password information and as soon as your data has been uploaded into the Peoplesoft system. After you register as a BCTC student, use your Student ID number given to you at registration to activate your KCTCS E-mail Account. Then, your information will be uploaded into BCTC's PeopleSoft system. Once you are fully in the system, you will be able to log into the BCTC EZproxy and you will have access to restricted library resources throughout your browser session.
Students registered for BCTC distant education classes via KYVU: You must be registered as a BCTC student and have a BCTC student e-mail account in order to use the BCTC EZProxy. If you are a KYVU distance education student, you may only use the BCTC proxy system to access BCTC e-resources if you are also registered as a BCTC student. Please contact the BCTC Student Records Office with any questions about your BCTC registration status. If you have further questions, please contact BCTC distance learning.
Additional Information:
1) You must be a current BCTC faculty, staff or student and have a valid, activated e-mail login and password.
2) You must have an Internet Service Provider (ISP), such as Internet Explorer or Netscape, and a computer with a modem or other appropriate hardware to access databases from home.
3) EZproxy is browser independent (i.e., any browser should work). However, EZproxy requires that you set your browser to accept all cookies, which is generally the default setting. If you have changed your default cookies setting in the past, click here for information on how to change your setting back to the original, default setting, so that it accepts all cookies.
4) You will only be able to access off-campus those electronic resources that have been licensed by BCTC and approved for proxy access. Some resources purchased by the BCTC libraries are not approved for proxy access and will only be accessible on the BCTC campuses, and some may be limited by other special ID and passwords. Check with the library if you need more information about whether a specific database is accessible from home or not.
5)The first time you try to access a proxy-restricted resource, you will see the BCTC EZproxy login page, with boxes for you to enter your username and password. For each browser session you will only be asked to enter your BCTC username and password that one time. Helpful hint: Use no spaces when entering your login and password information.
6) After you have successfully logged into the BCTC EZproxy, the journal database you are trying to access should appear, and you can begin searching for articles in the database.
If you currently are on a computer in one of the BCTC libraries or on a computer on the campus network you will not need to use the BCTC EZproxy at that time. You will be able to access databases without being required to login. The BCTC EZproxy login information will only be needed if you are a BCTC student, staff, or faculty accessing databases off-campus.
"Cookies Enabled" is generally a default browser setting, so if you are unsure of what cookies are and how to change this setting, your browser is probably already set appropriately for EZproxy.
But you may need to check or adjust this setting, if you having trouble getting into proxied databases. Specific information is provided below for Internet Explorer 7 and Netscape 7. For other browsers, you should be able to look at the help information for "cookies" and choose the least restrictive setting (e.g., allow all cookies).
Just click Okay to continue. EZproxy is set up to use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology to encrypt your login, providing additional protection during the login process.
No. Just click Yes to continue. EZproxy is set up to use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology to encrypt your login, providing additional protection during the login process. After you have successfully logged in, EZproxy then connects you with the database resource you selected, which in most cases does not use SSL technology. The browser is just letting you know that the site you are being sent to next is not using this encryption technology.
If you are logging into the proxy server from home, temporarily disable your personal computer's firewall. After you deactivate that software, restart your workstation, and try again. Some commercial firewall programs ( for example, ZoneAlarm) can block your home access to the college's proxy server.
Or, you may add the proxy server address as a "trusted site" to your firewall software's list of trusted sites.
If you are trying to log into the proxy server from work or other commercial location, contact the server administrator at your location to see if access is available to you through their firewall, or if the site can be added as a trusted source.
It also may be that the college network is down temporarily or is very busy. In that case, try again later.
JavaScript does not run properly
Some anti-virus programs can prevent JavaScripts from executing. If you encounter this problem, temporarily disable your personal computer's antivirus program, restart your workstation, and try again. Also, make sure your browser is set to accept Javascript (See below)
PDF journal articles do not open
Make sure you have the free Adobe Reader installed on your home computer. It is needed for opening and displaying PDF documents.
Many Adobe Acrobat documents are quite large: their size is often measured in Megabytes (millions of bytes) rather than Kilobytes (thousands of bytes), as is the case with most HTML files. This can cause problems when you are on a slow connection. A common symptom is that nothing happens after you click on a link to an Adobe Acrobat file. The Adobe Acrobat window comes up, but the document remains blank. In such cases, your solution might be to download the file onto your hard drive and view or print it from there. The process is as follows:
The file is now saved onto your hard drive. You can open this file just by double-clicking on its icon.
EZproxy accepts my username/password, but I can't get any further
1. Deleting the Cache in your browser
Your browser might be caching a failed access attempt. If so, you need to delete the offline content stored by your browser, so that it will register your successful login. For example, In Internet Explorer: Go to the Tools menu and choose Internet Options. Click on the Delete Files button. Click OK.
2. Enabling Cookies in your browser.
Another possibility is that you need to enable cookies on your browser. See above section about cookies, listed above. (Please note that enabling cookies involves some risk in terms of internet privacy and security, so you may wish to re-adjust your cookie settings after completing your proxied database searches.)
3. Enabling JavaScript in your browser.
If Javascript has been turned off in your browser, it can affect some databases, so you may need to check and make sure JavaScript has been enabled. For example, to enable JavaScript in Internet Explorer browser: go to the Tools menu and choose Internet Option. Click on the Security tab. Click on Internet. Click on the Custom Level button. Scroll down to the Scripting section. Click in the Enable radio button under Active Scripting (if this is not selected, already). Click OK.
4. Database Access - vendor issues
Sometimes the connection will not go through because the database you are trying to access is temporarily unavailable due to vendor maintenance, upgrades, or service outages. You can try again later, or you may want to go back to the library articles page at http://www.bluegrass.kctcs.edu/LCC/LIB/articles.html and click on a link to a different database to use for your research.
and report it to the library at 859-246-6380.
EZproxy doesn't function well with my Internet Service Provider (such as AOL or Prodigy)
ISPs that use proprietary versions of browsers, such as AOL or Prodigy, can cause some problems for EZproxy. A simple workaround is to connect to the provider, minimize your AOL session and use your own copy (you can download it) of Internet Explorer or Netscape for accessing the library's resources instead of AOL's or Prodigy's proprietary versions of the browser.
Another common problem is that during initial set up of dial-up, cable, or broadband connections, certain browser settings get configured according to AOL's or Prodigy's own preferences, rather than the settings you need for EZproxy. That is yet another reason to minimize your AOL or Prodigy session and instead use your own copy of Netscape or Internet Explorer when accessing library resources.
When I am off-campus and I go directly to a database's homepage to login, rather than using a database link from the library's webpage, my college login/password doesn't work.
You must go through the college's proxy server in order for your BCTC username/password to work. The proxied links on the library web page ( see proxied databases at http://www.bluegrass.kctcs.edu/LCC/LIB/articles.html , for example) are set up to automatically redirect you to the BCTC EZproxy first.
You enter your login/password information, and then you are redirected to the database itself. If you try to bypass the proxy server by going directly to the vendor's site, the database vendor will not recognize that you are a BCTC student, and won't permit access. The BCTC EZproxy server is the "gatekeeper" that checks to see if you are an off-campus BCTC student before you are allowed access.
My professor gave me a username /password for KYVL. It is not my Peoplesoft username/password. Where can I use this KYVL username/password?
Go to this link: http://www.kyvl.org/
(A direct link to the Kentucky Virtual Library (KYVL) is also on the articles page of our library website at: http://www.bluegrass.kctcs.edu/LCC/LIB/articles.html).
KYVL provides BCTC with many useful library resources. KYVL ( Kentucky Virtual Library) includes several full-text articles databases, as well as many additional research tools such as Kentucky Stats and the Kentucky Virtual Library.
I'm in KYVL. Why can't I find InfoTrac, Newsbank, or JSTOR databases?
Please be aware that not all of the BCTC library resources are available in KYVL. We supplement our KYVL subscription with subscriptions to non-KYVL resources, such as JSTOR, Newsbank, and InfoTrac. If you need to use JSTOR, InfoTrac, or Newsbank for a class assignment, please go through the proxied links to those specific databases instead, at http://www.bluegrass.kctcs.edu/LCC/LIB/articles.html They are not available to you within KYVL.
To log into the BCTC EZproxy system, simply click on the link for a BCTC proxied library database you want to use, such as InfoTrac Expanded Academic ASAP Database, and you will automatically be prompted for a username and password. Enter the Peoplesoft username and password you use for your e-mail. For more databases and other library resources, please visit the articles page of our library website.
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