Vendor Partner COVID-19 Support: Project Muse for Academic Libraries

WiLS has received the following communication, valid until June 30, 2020:

With many faculty and students working and learning off-campus due to the COVID-19 public health crisis, the need for remote access to their library’s resources has become essential. To help users more easily connect with content on our platform to which they are entitled via their affiliated institution’s holdings, Project MUSE is temporarily enabling users who have created personal MyMUSE accounts to link those accounts to their institution and gain access to entitled content.

A MyMUSE account allows a user to create a personal bookshelf of MUSE content, among other customization features. Users are not required to supply an email to create a MyMUSE account, but may voluntarily do so to take advantage of certain features, and many users provide email addresses that can be matched to known institutional customer domains. MUSE will allow users with emails that match customer domains to use their MyMUSE account login to remotely access their institution’s MUSE content from now until June 30, 2020. For example, a user with email  will be matched to a customer, ABC University, whose domain is known to be abcuniversity.edu.  That user will then have access to content that their institution has purchased or subscribed to, simply by signing in to their personal MyMUSE account.

Libraries may register additional domains with MUSE to help match more user accounts for access, or may opt out of this new feature for their institution.

This temporary remote access method will only apply to users who:

• have an active MyMUSE account, or create one between now and June 30
• voluntarily supply an email address for that account which matches an active institutional customer through the associated domain name

Please note that MUSE strictly adheres to GDPR guidelines with regards to user-supplied email addresses for MyMUSE accounts. Also, MUSE licenses have a broad definition of Authorized Users, including all faculty, students, staff, and alumni.

MyMUSE account holders who have not previously provided an email and wish to add one, or who wish to change the email associated with their MyMUSE account (for instance, to one associated with their affiliated institution) may do so at any time, by logging in to their MyMUSE account. Users may also search for any existing remote access options, such as Shibboleth or a proxy, which their library has previously registered with MUSE, by searching for their institution using the “Access via my institution” link within their MyMUSE account. Libraries who wish to share information about this temporary access option with their communities are encouraged to do so.

Institutional Opt-Out Available

Project MUSE is launching this new access option after receiving positive feedback on the feature from a majority of our library customers. However, some institutions may have reason or desire to not have this option enabled for their users. If you wish to opt out of having this access option activated for users affiliated with your institution, please complete the opt-out form. We will turn off this option for your institution immediately upon receipt of your opt-out request.

Submit Additional Domains for Your Institution

Some institutions may have more than one email domain address for their users, for example both abcuniversity.edu and abcu.edu. Libraries may register additional domains, to help match more users to your institution, using the Update Authentication Options tool in the MUSE Library Dashboard. If needed, you can create a new account for the dashboard, which also offers customized metadata for your holdings, usage statistics, and more. While in the dashboard, you can also ensure that you have provided details on all other remote authentication options you may have in place.

Messaging to MyMUSE Account Holders

Below is the message that MyMUSE account holders will receive if we match their voluntarily-supplied email to a known institutional customer. MUSE Customer Support provides assistance for MyMUSE accounts as needed and will be prepared to support users in utilizing this temporary remote access option.