Shibboleth and Library Resources
Internet2 Library/Shibboleth Project
David Kennedy, UMD
What is the Library/Shibboleth Project?
• Established 2007
• Five universities + Internet2
• Campus IT, Library IT, Librarians
David Kennedy, UMD
Library concerns with Shibboleth enabled
electronic resources
• Communication with campus IT
• Privacy
• Privacy with individual vendors
• Privacy across vendors
• Session persistence
• Walk-in users
• Library patron database integration
David Kennedy, UMD
Electronic resources background
• Ten years of growth
• Prevalence of home computing
• Increase in distance education
• Convenience and user expectation
• Hundreds of vendors, thousands of resources
• Significant part of the library collection budget
• Access and use restrictions
• Substantial work to integrate this seamlessly
David Kennedy, UMD
Electronic resource challenges
• Remote access is problematic
• Maintaining IPs is time consuming and
unreliable
David Kennedy, UMD
Focus of Library/Shibboleth
• Access control and licensed electronic
resources
• Identify user scenarios
• Document business practice and
technology issues
• Test solutions
David Kennedy, UMD
Technologies
• Shibboleth
• EZproxy
• mod_auth_location
David Kennedy, UMD
What is Shibboleth?
• Open source standards-based web single
sign-on package
• Leverages local identity management system
• Enables access to campus and external
applications
• Protects users’ privacy
• Helps your service partners
• Plays well with others
David Kennedy, UMD
Shibboleth’s benefits
• Single sign on
• E-resource personalization
• Usage statistics
• Reduction in trouble tickets
David Kennedy, UMD
What is EZproxy?
• Server side proxy (URL rewriting)
• Proxy access for off-campus resources
• Inexpensive
• Library-focused
• SSO authentication
David Kennedy, UMD
EZproxy’s benefits
• On/off campus consistency
• Persistent URL
• Hybrid solution
• Single place where you point your URLs!
• Simple URL creation
David Kennedy, UMD
What is mod_auth_location?
• Apache module
• Guest authentication by location (IP)
• Used in conjunction with Shib
David Kennedy, UMD
mod_auth_location’s benefits
• Local IP management
• Walk in user
limitations
• Override “guest” access
David Kennedy, UMD
What are the benefits?
Benefits to users
• Single sign on
• Personalization
Benefits to librarians
• Manage IP’s locally (mod_auth_location)
• Support
Benefit to library administration
• Tracking of usage
David Kennedy, UMD
Maryland as Case Study
• Implemented Shibboleth 2005
• Shibboleth enabled library services
• Metalib, Aleph, ILLiad, EZproxy, (SFX)
• SSO with electronic resources
• Persistent URLs though EZproxy
• Campus integration projects
• Blackboard, Portal
David Kennedy, UMD
What can you do?
• Get EZproxy!
• Implement Shibboleth locally
• Explore local issues and concerns with
your library
• Pilot existing SSO vendors
• Discuss interest in SSO to commercial
vendors
David Kennedy, UMD
Next steps – Library/Shibboleth Project
• Recommending best practices and
solutions to common use cases
• Conducting pilots to validate approaches
• Encourage adoption of Shibboleth by US
institutions and libraries
• Community information sharing
David Kennedy, UMD
Shibboleth-enabled information providers
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American Chemical Society
Atlas (ILLiad/ARES)
Atypon
CSA
EBSCO
Elsevier Science Direct
Ex Libris
EZprozy
JSTOR
Literary Encyclopedia
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OCLC WorldCAT
OVID/SilverPlatter
Project MUSE
Proquest
Safari (underway)
SCRAN
Serials Solutions
Springer
Thomson Gale
Thomson ISI (underway)
David Kennedy, UMD
More information
https://spaces.internet2.edu/display/InCCollaborate/Library+Pilot
davekenn@umd.edu
David Kennedy, UMD