February 12, 2019

Geolocation Tip: Incognito or Private Mode for Your Browser

Screenshot of Chrome's Incognito Mode


Hi Folks, 

As you know, in January we went live with geolocation as a way to offer access to the Gale databases through OSLIS when an off-campus user forgets his or her login. This announcement has details, including a screenshot of the geolocation login screen and a reminder that filing your district’s or private school’s IP addresses with Gale is still the best option for instant on-campus access to the Gale databases. 

Speaking of on-campus access, last week someone asked me if there was a way to get the Gale geolocation login screen to show at school even though you have IP address (instant) authentication – so you can show students what to expect when accessing the databases at home. The answer is yes, and the easiest way to accomplish that is to use your browser’s private or incognito mode which does not track cookies, logins, etc. Here’s some info about that for Chrome (screenshot above), EdgeFirefox, and Safari.   

FYI, using private or incognito mode is also a good way to test the share setting for a Google doc or Google folder URL to make sure you really did make the setting “anyone with this link can view” before sharing the URL with others. Also, if you chose “anyone with this link can edit,” you can easily test that you can edit the document after pasting the URL into a private or incognito window or tab in your browser.     

Thanks,
Jen

Jennifer Maurer
School Library Consultant
State Library of Oregon


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