UMP EBC Technical FAQ

General Information

Q: What is the University of Michigan Press Ebook Collection?

A: The University of Michigan Press Ebook Collection (UMP EBC) is a collection of scholarly ebooks published by the University of Michigan Press that was first made available for sale to libraries on January 10, 2019. It is hosted on our own Fulcrum platform and sold to libraries by LYRASIS, a non-profit organization that acts as an agent for its 1,000 members (and other clients) to buy content collections and technology solutions. The commitment we make to libraries is that the collection will include at least 80 new books every year as well as a growing backlist.

Q: What titles are included and excluded for UMP EBC?

A: UMP EBC is a comprehensive collection of all new scholarly University of Michigan Press books, including both specialist monographs and adoptable course books. It does not include titles for which the Press does not have ebook rights, regional trade titles, or true textbooks (mostly the Press’s English Language Teaching titles). It contains distributed titles unless those are specifically opted out. A complete list of all titles in the collection is available that not only shows which books are included in the collection, but also indicates which are not and why.

Q: Do open access books appear in UMP EBC?

A: Yes, they do. In January 2021, the Press announced its plan to transition to an open access monograph model termed Fund to Mission. Read more about Fund to Mission here.

Q: How are frontlist titles added to UMP EBC?

A: Frontlist titles are added twice a month. One batch is for EBC titles publishing between the 1st-15th of the month and the second batch is for EBC titles publishing between the 16th-31st. Titles with a publication date in the first half of the month would be released to Fulcrum at the end of the previous month, and titles with a publication date in the second half of the month would be released to Fulcrum in the middle of the same month.

Q: How far back do the backlist years go in UMP EBC?

A: As well as adding new frontlist books every year, we will continue to add to the backlists as time and funding allows. The complete lists for years back to 2012 are available, and a number of “2011 and earlier” titles are included although not as complete years.

MARC Records

Q: Are MARC records available directly from UMP?

A: Yes, MARC files for all EBC titles can be downloaded from https://ftp.fulcrum.org/UMPEBC/MARC/ in .mrc and .xml formats. These files contain all UMP EBC records and have been created by the University of Michigan Library metadata librarians. These records may be completed a few months before the title is loaded onto the Fulcrum platform. You can sign up for monthly updates on new MARC files by sending an email to ebc-tech-contacts-requests@umich.edu.

Q: What do the filenames of the MARC records mean?

A:Files named for a specific product/collection, e.g. 'UMPEBC_2022.mrc', contain the cumulative set of MARC records for all titles that are currently live in that collection. These files are the best option for making sure you have the most up-to-date set of records. We also make available incremental update files for those who prefer only to load records that have been added or corrected since your previous load. In this case, just download and load the files named e.g. 'UMPEBC_2022_update_YYYY-MM-DD.mrc', substituting YYYY-MM-DD with all dates that follow the last time you loaded records for this collection.

Said another way, UMPEBC_COMPLETE file (with no date in the file name) represents the entire collection as of the date of the file, whereas the UMPEBC_COMPLETE_update_YYYY-MM-DD files represent only records added to the collection since the last update.

For example:

• 'UMPEBC_2011Pre.mrc' contains all records for titles with a copyright date of 2011 or previous.
• 'UMPEBC_2011Pre_update_2021-09-15.mrc' contains only records for the above collection that were added on September 15, 2021 (either because the title is newly added to the collection or the cataloging is newly complete). It will not contain records from previous update files unless those records are being enhanced or corrected in this update.
• 'UMPEBC_Complete.mrc' contains all records from all collections, including those included in UMPEBC_2011Pre.mrc.
• 'UMPEBC_OA.mrc' contains records for all Open Access titles across all collections.

Q: Are KBART files available directly from UMP?

A: Yes. KBART files provide metadata only for those titles which are currently available on the platform. KBART files are available from https://ftp.fulcrum.org/UMPEBC/KBART/.

Q: When will the backfiles be officially "closed" or complete so that we can stop checking back for MARC records?

A: The MARC records are organized by publication year and are completed at the end of each year. For 2011 and prior (what UMP refers to as the “Archive”) there will be a continual process of adding older titles -- many of which have not yet been made available as ebooks -- and this will take a number of years. This is also why we do not offer a permanent access option for the Archive.

EZProxy Stanzas

Q: How do I configure my proxy server to enable access?

A: Adding this stanza to your EZProxy configuration will work in most cases:

Last updated July 22, 2022:

T Fulcrum
U https://www.fulcrum.org
HJ doi.org
HJ https://doi.org
HJ hdl.handle.net
HJ https://hdl.handle.net
HJ ebc.press.umich.edu
HJ https://ebc.press.umich.edu
HJ www.fulcrum.org
HJ https://www.fulcrum.org
HJ fulcrum.org 
HJ https://fulcrum.org
DJ fulcrum.org
Find id="permalink" aria-label="citable link" value="https://
Replace id="permalink" aria-label="citable link" value="https://^A

However, there are circumstances in which you may want to add a more nuanced configuration.

If you’re currently using RedirectSafe or NeverProxy for handle.net, then add the following near the top of your config file:

AnonymousURL +https://hdl.handle.net/*
AnonymousURL +http://hdl.handle.net/*
AnonymousURL +https://handle.net/*
AnonymousURL +http://handle.net/*

… and add this line to the end of the Fulcrum stanza:

AnonymousURL -*

Similarly, the following lines should be added near the top of your config file instead of using RedirectSafe or NeverProxy for doi.org or dx.doi.org:

AnonymousURL +https://dx.doi.org/*
AnonymousURL +http://dx.doi.org/*
AnonymousURL +https://doi.org/*
AnonymousURL +http://doi.org/*

This would also require the presence of the following line to the end of the Fulcrum stanza:

AnonymousURL -*

Please note that throttle settings in your configuration may have a negative impact on your members' use of large files on Fulcrum. 

Authentication and Authorization

Q: Do you support IPv6?

The University of Michigan campus backbone, on which Fulcrum is hosted, does not support IPv6 at this time. Please continue to send us your IPv4 ranges for basic authentication.

Q: Do you support Single Sign-On (SSO) via Shibboleth or OpenAthens?

A: Fulcrum supports access for your institution's members through federated Single Sign-On technologies such as Shibboleth or OpenAthens. Fulcrum is a member of InCommon and participates in eduGAIN.  Allowing your members to access UMP EBC via your Shibboleth / OpenAthens Identity Provider requires the following:

1. Your institution must have a SAML-based Identity Provider (IdP) whose metadata we can consume via a stable URL and which defines a security domain using shibMD:scope. This is most commonly achieved through membership to an identity federation that participates in eduGAIN.  The following federations have been confirmed to support access to Fulcrum via eduGAIN as of November 2019:
   • Canadian Access Federation (CAF)
   • HEAnet / Edugate
   • InCommon
   • UK Federation
2. Your Identity Provider must be configured to release attribute 'eduPersonScopedAffiliation' to entityId 'https://fulcrum.org/sp' and to release the value 'member' when applicable. For more details on configuring your SSO to work with Fulcrum (ACS endpoints), please find our metadata in the eduGAIN aggregate metadata XML.
3. You must provide us with the entityId of your Identity Provider.

This information can be included in your order form or emailed to fulcrum-info@umich.edu.

A Fulcrum logo is available at https://www.fulcrum.org/img/fulcrum-logo-shibboleth.png

Please note that Fulcrum is not a member of OpenAthens Federation. You must participate in another identity federation to take advantage of SSO integration.

Q: Are WAYFless URLs supported?

A: Yes. If you have Shibboleth/SSO access set up, the DOIs in the MARC records can be modified to create WAYFless URLs. This will allow your patrons to authenticate at your institutional portal without encountering a login prompt on Fulcrum. If the patron already has an active session with your institution's Identity Provider, then their access will be seamless.

To make a UMP EBC DOI into a WAYFless URL, append the following:

?urlappend=%3fentityID=[your institution's entityID]

For example, a WAYFless version of  https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11434091 for the University of Michigan would be:

https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11434091?urlappend=%3fentityID=https://shibboleth.umich.edu/idp/shibboleth

While we try to avoid DOIs that resolve to Fulcrum URLs that contain query parameters (e.g. "?locale=en"), if such an exception occurs, the WAYFless URL syntax above will result in an error. In these cases, please append the following instead:

?urlappend=%26entityID=[your institution's entityID]

To create a WAYFless link to the collection as a whole:

https://www.fulcrum.org/michigan?entityID=[your institution's entityID]

DOIs

Q: When will the DOIs be redirected to the Fulcrum platform?

A: Titles appear in the MARC files as soon as the record is created (usually a few weeks prior to the publication date). The MARC files include DOIs. These are initially pointed to the catalog record on the Press website, but when the title is launched on the Fulcrum platform the DOI is redirected to the title. This workflow has caused libraries to receive access errors for new books. We are working on making sure that the MARC records are only made available after the title is made live on the platform so these errors do not occur any more. This process has been completed for the 2019 file, and will be applied the backlist and cumulative files soon.

Usage Statistics

COUNTER 5 Reports

We recently updated our COUNTER Master Reports (Platform Master, Title Master, and Item Master) to comply with R5 standards. Master Reports include all relevant metrics and attributes, but now in a customizable form. Users can create reports specific to their needs through the application of filters and other configuration options.

Users will now be presented with an interface that allows them to select usage dates, one or more Metric_Types, Data_Types, Access_Types, etc. and indicate if the filter columns are to be included. (Including the column will cause usage to be broken out by individual values for the selected filter, whereas not including the column will result in usage being summarized for the selected filter.) With this update, rows with a zero total count will no longer be included in the report.

Q: Where can I find more information about COUNTER 5 reporting standards?

A: Please visit the Project COUNTER website for more information.

Book Analytics Dashboard

Q: What is the Book Analytics Dashboard?

A: The Book Analytics Dashboard has been built by the Curtin Open Knowledge Initiative (COKI). It aggregates usage information from a variety of publishing platforms in order to provide authors, libraries, and funders with a comprehensive view of the impact of Ebooks (currently with a focus on open access books). This dashboard originates in the work of the Open Access eBook Usage Data Trust project, of which Michigan Publishing is one of the leaders. The University of Michigan Press is one of five pilot partner publishers to contribute open access ebook usage data to the project, and to receive a customized report aggregating usage data from a range of sources. 

Q: What are the data sources for the Book Analytics Dashboard?

• OAPEN
  • Counter 4 Title Requests
  • COUNTER 5 Total Item Requests
• JSTOR COUNTER 5 Chapter downloads
• Page views on Google Books
• Downloads on Google Play Books
• Crossref Events
• Fulcrum COUNTER 5 Total Item Requests

Q: Will I be contacted about how to log in to an admin module (if available), how to set IP addresses, how to retrieve COUNTER reports, etc.?

A: Fulcrum, the platform that supports UMP EBC, does not have a admin panel that requires login; IP addresses are reported in the UMP EBC order form that LYRASIS provides to UMP. The COUNTER reports dashboard requires no login; it uses IP authentication to identify the requesting institution. Librarians can access, view, and download (.csv) their institution’s COUNTER reports documenting usage at fulcrum.org/counter_reports. (You may need to alter the previous link to a proxied URL in order to be IP-authenticated to the reporting system.)

You can read more information about the COUNTER 5 standard and your COUNTER reports here. 

Downloading and Reading Content

Q: What content download options are available?

A: Users are able to download entire ebooks in a single PDF or EPUB file. We currently do not offer the option of downloading individual chapters. As well as downloading content, users can read books online using the open source EPUB and PDF readers included in the Fulcrum platform.

Q: Are the ebooks in UMP EBC accessible?

A: Yes, all post-2012 titles in UMP EBC published by the University of Michigan Press are presented in EPUB3 format with varying levels of accessibility enrichment. Older and distributed titles are sometimes available only as PDFs, but where this is the case it is indicated in accessibility metadata. Since 2020, all ebooks are certified Global Accessible through Benetech, the highest standard. More details about the accessibility of the collection and the platform are available at this link:  https://www.fulcrum.org/accessibility/ 

Q: How is the longevity of UMP EBC titles ensured?

A: As well as being curated by the University of Michigan Library, UMP EBC titles are preserved in the CLOCKSS distributed preservation service and the Academic Preservation Trust. Further details are available at this link: https://www.fulcrum.org/preservation/ 

Q: What safeguards are in place to ensure patron privacy?

The privacy policy applied to UMP EBC is the same one used for all U-M Library content. This meets or exceeds GDPR and State level privacy policies as applicable. Please find the details available at this link:  https://www.fulcrum.org/privacy/

Discoverability / Delivery Services

Q: How often are the delivery service providers updated with Fulcrum ebook collections for the University of Michigan Press?

A: U-M Press has entered into a number of agreements to make EBC collections more discoverable and to enable auto-loading of MARC records; the workflows for getting our content ingested and indexed are still being worked out with the vendors. Our agreements should get EBC indexed in the following services:

The table below reflects the status of each vendor product.

Q: Are there plans to provide chapter-level indexing for inclusion in the Ex Libris Primo Central index?

A: We don't have chapter metadata at this time, but it is something we are working on for future years. 

Technical Support

Q: How can I get individualized technical support?

A: Please report technical issues or questions to fulcrum-info@umich.edu. We will respond within two business days at the latest, and usually much faster.

Q: How can I customize the institutional name in the top right corner of Fulcrum with the name of our library?

A: Email us at fulcrum-info@umich.edu and tell us how you would like your institution name to display.