Problem with access to quotations in Oxford Reference Online

[Victor Steinbok]

It's possible that ORO has internal traps to catch large data sets to
prevent cyclical requests. One would expect such things to be caught
fast, as flags are often marked out. But if they are not, it could be
just a couple of lines buried in the middle of some heavy lifting and go
unnoticed for a long time. But, at least the response that they are
trying to solve the problem implies that this is not a "feature". Of
course, it could be two different arms working at cross-purposes.

I've had an interesting experience with the most recent couple of
incarnations of Google News. Search requests that produce more than 100
records lock out after the 10th screen--that is, once you've viewed the
first 100 records, the rest cannot be accessed. This seems to be
deliberate, as the problem was never fixed. But, of course, Google does
not respond to such trifling queries. There is an obvious work-around
that allows access to complete records. Instead of displaying the order
preferred by Google, arrange the data chronologically. This way, there
will be a definite cut-off date for the 100th record. Then, changing the
the opposite limit to that date will allow the next 100 records to come
up. This is only in Google News Archives and does not affect Google
Books or other searches.

     VS-)

On 12/11/2011 2:34 PM, Garson O'Toole wrote:
> Oxford Reference Online is a magnificent system, but if you plan to
> access quotations in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations you may not
> succeed.
>
> I use a library gateway when using Oxford Reference Online. Requests
> for large quotation sets often fail. For example, I just tried to
> obtain the quotations of Thomas Jefferson in the Oxford Dictionary of
> Quotations and after a long delay a blank screen was displayed.
>
> Customer Support for Oxford Reference Online indicates that they are
> aware of the problem. But apparently it is a difficult problem because
> they have been unable to fix it for more than a month, and the problem
> is much older than a month.
>
> The files being transmitted are tiny compared to the large PDFs files
> successfully transmitted but other database providers.
>
> What is the problem: Overloaded system? Improper time-out signal
> during transmission? Who knows? Maybe they need a mirror system in a
> well-connected location in North America to handle requests (if they
> so not have one.)
>
> When I was a direct subscriber the system also sometimes failed to
> display large quotation sets. But a re-request sometimes succeeded. So
> communication through an intermediate library gateway is compounding
> the problem.

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