[Eril-l] OpenAthens: Pros? Cons?

[Sheldon, Karen]

We switched over to Open Athens from EZ proxy about a year ago. All of our databases are authenticated via OA. OA does have a proxy function which handles the 5 resources we have that don’t support single sign-on. They are as follows:
Access Science
Birds of North America
Britannica Online
CQ Researcher
Salem Press Critical Insights eBooks

It was an initially bumpy experience switching to OA. But now that I have a dedicated tech rep, I have no complaints.

Karen Sheldon
Electronic and Instructional Services Librarian
Delaware Valley University
700 East Butler Ave., Doylestown PA 18901
215.489.4968 | karen.sheldon at delval.edu<mailto:karen.sheldon at delval.edu>

From: Eril-l [mailto:eril-l-bounces at lists.eril-l.org] On Behalf Of Melissa Belvadi
Sent: Wednesday, May 9, 2018 9:06 AM
To: Wisofsky, Tami <WisofskyT at uhv.edu>
Cc: eril-l at lists.eril-l.org; COLLIB-L at lists.ala.org; acl at acl.org
Subject: Re: [Eril-l] OpenAthens: Pros? Cons?

This is a shock to me, because the sales reps absolutely assured us that anything that ezproxy could proxy, the proxy function within OpenAthens could also handle, so we should NOT need to maintain a separate ezproxy for any resources.
Basically they told us that OpenAthens has the equivalent of ezproxy built-in to handle all sites that aren't OpenAthens-native compatible. Now you're telling us this isn't true.
Can you please tell us more about this?

Melissa Belvadi
Collections Librarian
University of Prince Edward Island
mbelvadi at upei.ca<mailto:mbelvadi at upei.ca> 902-566-0581
my public calendar<http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=mbelvadi%40upei.ca&ctz=America/Halifax&mode=week>



On Tue, May 8, 2018 at 5:45 PM, Wisofsky, Tami <WisofskyT at uhv.edu<mailto:WisofskyT at uhv.edu>> wrote:
Amy,
We moved to OpenAthens in December 2017. My main complaint is that approximately 50% of our resources authenticated using OpenAthens use proxy links; and there are a handful of products that OpenAthens authentication is not compatible with (APA Style Central, Kanopy, Books 24x, etc.). So, to be able to authenticate those products that do not work with OpenAthens we continue to maintain EZ Proxy in addition to OpenAthens. We host our own EZ Proxy, so the cost is not prohibitive for us.
Tami Wisofsky
[tinylogo]
Tami Wisofsky
Serials/Electronic Resources Librarian
Victoria College/University of Houston-Victoria Library
2602 N. Ben Jordan
Victoria, Texas 77901
361-570-4195
wisofskyt at uhv.edu<mailto:wisofskyt at uhv.edu>
vcuhvlibrary.uhv.edu<http://vcuhvlibrary.uhv.edu>


From: Eril-l <eril-l-bounces at lists.eril-l.org<mailto:eril-l-bounces at lists.eril-l.org>> On Behalf Of Hwang, Amy L
Sent: Tuesday, May 8, 2018 10:14 AM
To: eril-l at lists.eril-l.org<mailto:eril-l at lists.eril-l.org>; COLLIB-L at lists.ala.org<mailto:COLLIB-L at lists.ala.org>; acl at acl.org<mailto:acl at acl.org>
Subject: [Eril-l] OpenAthens: Pros? Cons?

Hello All,

I’m considering switching to OpenAthens for authentication rather than staying with EZproxy. Has anyone made that switch? I have a couple of reasons for thinking about switching. The version of EZproxy that my IT department currently hosts is no longer supported, and they don’t want to host an updated version of EZproxy. (I would be switching to hosted EZproxy instead.) It seems to me that although OpenAthens is more expensive, I wouldn’t have to involve IT as much, and I could get out-of-the-box statistics that lets me know who is logging in and to what resources. (It would make it easier to know what to cut if needed.)

Most of the resources my library subscribes to are “big deal” collections rather than titles accessed from publisher websites. I’ve looked on some listservs and seen that some libraries use both EZproxy and OpenAthens, but I can’t afford to do that.

Any advice you have for me would be greatly appreciated!

Sincerely,
Amy Hwang

* Please excuse the cross-posting.*

Amy L. Hwang, MLS | Director of Library Services | Nease Library, Eastern Nazarene College | 23 E. Elm Ave., Quincy, MA 02170 | 617-745-3854


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