[Eril-l] OpenAthens: Pros? Cons?

Tue May 15 01:51:55 PDT 2018

I’d like to thank everyone who is contributing to this discussion.

Full, authenticated access to your organisation’s licensed resources and applications via OpenAthens is our goal.

We offer access via a federated route, a SAML connection and IP recognition. We have recently rebuilt our proxy component to improve performance and put us in a position to respond to URL and certification changes as well as future infrastructure and policy updates from our vendors.

The only scenario where we would push back against IP recognition i.e. setting the resource up on our managed proxy service, is where we believe the vendor supports SAML based access. We have recently stopped offering username and password access via our proxy service as this breaches security requirements or puts privacy and data protection compliance at risk.

We often encounter issues with proxy access as URLs are updated and we work with our customers and publishers to resolve and fix access problems.

In the examples listed in this thread we are working with our partner ESBCO to confirm that access is available via the proxy or a direct peer-to-peer SAML connection. It is also important to understand that we can work with all vendors that support SAML which in turn means that we are compatible with all Shibboleth vendors. Some may be in a federation.

We are collaborating with our partners and customers across the world to try and improve the understanding about the different authentication methods. NISO, the international standards organisation is also working to establish standards and deepen understanding in this area with their RA21 initiatives.

We recognise how complex it can be and recently published an open access book with Springer which addresses many of these issues from a library perspective: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-319-73990-8.

We apologise for the frustrations. Please feel free to share your frustrations directly with us as well as the community forums. We will work to fix access via any route – including our proxy -  and your insight and views are integral to us ultimately improving the service.

Kind regards,

Adam Snook
Product Manager
OpenAthens
adam.snook at eduserv.org.uk<mailto:adam.snook at eduserv.org.uk> | +44 (0) 117 313 6530
www.openathens.org | @openathens<https://www.twitter.com/OpenAthens> | Blog<http://www.openathens.org/category/blog/> | LinkedIn<https://www.linkedin.com/company/openathens>
Eduserv is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales (company number 3763109), and a registered charity (charity number 1079456), whose registered office and principal place of business is 4 Portwall Lane, Bristol, BS1 6NB, UK. “OpenAthens” is a brand name of Eduserv.
From: Eril-l <eril-l-bounces at lists.eril-l.org> On Behalf Of Sheldon, Karen
Sent: 14 May 2018 14:33
To: eril-l at lists.eril-l.org
Subject: Re: [Eril-l] OpenAthens: Pros? Cons?

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<mailto:WisofskyT at uhv.edu>>
Cc: 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: 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<https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fcalendar%2Fembed%3Fsrc%3Dmbelvadi%2540upei.ca%26ctz%3DAmerica%2FHalifax%26mode%3Dweek&data=02%7C01%7Cmichelle.silvestre%40eduserv.org.uk%7C88e8f246d8d444075c3208d5b99f5d53%7Cea4475db47564c4abaf10c8e1a9ab6b6%7C0%7C1%7C636619016490100560&sdata=XWlk2FVozPKMmnxiTADhopMbTCvOEmo%2BJRl50syzUjw%3D&reserved=0>

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<https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fvcuhvlibrary.uhv.edu&data=02%7C01%7Cmichelle.silvestre%40eduserv.org.uk%7C88e8f246d8d444075c3208d5b99f5d53%7Cea4475db47564c4abaf10c8e1a9ab6b6%7C0%7C1%7C636619016490100560&sdata=i9Y2rV1T9O7EjN%2BBj3mAdsXpXLlFJRQx0HN0vgMOiog%3D&reserved=0>

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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