Access management for online resources

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, libraries were under more pressure to provide uninterrupted access to their electronic resources. To ensure access to the library electronic resources was key for the continuation of the institutional services underlining the important role that  libraries have in  the provision of education and research.

Access management is a crucial element of library collections management but it also probably one of the most complex aspects of managing electronic resources. This presentation wants to contribute to the understanding of this area covering the current authentication technologies for electronic resources from IP addresses to OpenID. This presentation will cover the existent literature. This presentation will aim to highlight the impact on user experience and usage reporting. All these elements are part of the day to day of electronic resources librarians, collections managers and library directors.

This presentation will cover : an introduction; the difference between authentication and authorization; the basic form of authentication: login; other forms of authentication: IP recognition -proxies- SAML-Open ID connect; Few challenges on information security to take into account; user journeys – how are they affected by the authentication technologies, and finally, impact on reporting: which usage statistics can be truly generated using the authentication logs.

This presentation has a purpose to present in a didactical way the key points of the access management technologies in order to empower library practitioners to manage confidently authentication issues and challenges as well as to hold informed conversations with their library patrons, internal stakeholders, other librarians and library providers.