InCommon Library Services

[Dean Woodbeck <>]

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InCommon Library Services Working Group
Draft Minutes
August 24, 2007
 
Steven Carmody, Brown University (chair)\
Lisa German, Penn State University
Renee Shuey, Penn State University
Janis Mathewson, Penn State University
Dave Kennedy, University of Maryland
Adam Chandler, Cornell University
Claire Misamoto, University of California-San Diego
Matt Elder, University of California-San Diego
Holley Eggleston, University of California-San Diego
R.L. “Bob” Morgan, University of Washington
Dean Woodbeck, Internet2 (scribe)
 
**Action Items**
 
[AI] Steve Carmody will outline the flow, from the perspective of a user accessing a resource, in one several situations (listed below). After receiving feedback from the group, the flow for one situation will be used as a template for preparing the others.
 

• User is on-campus
• User is at a public terminal in the library
• User is working at home
• User is accessing resources while in a different country
• User is an instructor, perhaps within a course management system, who wants to add a link to a resource that will work for a student regardless of the student’s location.

[AI] Holley Eggleston will organize an outline for a session at the Internet2 Fall Member Meeting in San Diego, describing Dave Kennedy’s Shibboleth/EZProxy test.
 
**EZProxy Review**
 
David Kennedy reviewed the University of Maryland’s use of EZProxy with EBSCO. He tested the workflow for seamless authentication into Shibboleth-protected licensed library resources.  The workflow is designed to handle links generated from many places, including OpenURL resolvers, gateways to online resources, class pages in Blackboard, and faculty-created links.
 
A complete report is on the InC Library wiki:
https://spaces.internet2.edu/display/inclibrary/Home
 
David reported that the test was successful, using the Session Initiator attribute. In the test with EBSCO,  EZProxy successfully placed the Session Initiator in front of the URL, sent it to EBSCO and successfully bypassed the WAYF. He also tested links generated from an OpenURL resolver, SFX, and from a gateway to library resources, Metalib.
 
His specific recommendations from this test are:
 
For resource providers:

• Implement Session Initiators to avoid the WAYF

• If providing multiple forms of authentication, specifically IP- and Shibboleth-based authentication, there should be a single URL syntax that works for both methods.

For Library Software Admins:

• Use EZProxy as single point for directing URLs that require some sort of authentication.

• For ease of URL generation, configure EZProxy to make decisions regarding how to handle on- and off-campus traffic.

• Use EZProxy's SPUEdit directives to redirect traffic to Shib-enabled resources through Session Initiators provided by resource providers
• For resources that allow both IP and Shib authentication, take advantage of SPUEdit IP directives (-ExcludeIP, -IncludeIP, -AutoLoginIP) to redirect on-campus traffic to the original URL, so as to bypass forcing on-campus users to log in.

The working group also discussed the use of EZProxy, Shib, and the Session Initiator as they apply to the Open Public Access Catalog (OPAC). EZProxy should be able to process URLs entered into the OPAC, thus avoiding a WAYF for logged-in users, provided EZProxy has been configured for the domains to which it will write. In Maryland’s case, if EZProxy encounters a domain for which it is not configured, the user receives a message to contact the system administrator and is not forwarded to the final destination URL.
 
**Google Scholar**
 
Adam Chandler from Cornell reviewed his experience with Google Scholar. He is particularly interested in providing access for Cornell users who, using Google Scholar, come across a resource that Cornell happens to license. For example, it would ideal if Google could use the IP range to determine if a Cornell user is on campus, then provide a prominent log-in to send the user through Shib. Or, if the person already had initiated a Shib session, they would be allowed access to the resource without an additional log-in.
 
Adam has provided a screen-cast to demonstrate what a Cornell user sees during a Google Scholar search (http://vichummert.org/sc/googlescholar/googlescholar.html). One of the links displayed with the Google search results is “Get It Cornell!” demonstrating that Google has recognized that the user is on the Cornell campus. If a user is not on campus, the user is routed through EZProxy.
 
The real use-case, from Adam’s perspective, is when the “Get It Cornell!” link is not there, indicating that Google does not recognize the IP address as in the Cornell range. If the resource was Shib-enabled for Cornell, why not let the provider (in this case Google) harvest the metadata and allow users to log in?
 
Most SPs seem to send all users to a log-in page that shows the available content. The next step would be to spread that log-in around the site, to where users encounter content, and allow them to log in from that point, rather than be directed back to a log-in page.
 
Steven Carmody reported that service providers seem to start with one log-in page, then begin the wrap Shib around their whole site. ProQuest is one vendor that is migrating to the latter method. The Session Initiator may be a key to this process, since it can read the metadata to determine how to get a user to the campus and logged in.
 
Steve suggested a continuing discussion with Google to outline the range of possibilities that would enhance the user experience. Google is already doing some processing, as indicated by the “Get It” link appearing when an IP range is recognized.
 
**Shibboleth and EZProxy**
 
The discussion turned to whether the Shib/EZProxy combination outlined by Dave Kennedy should be turned into a “recommended practice,” to be shared with other federations for feedback.
 
If a campus has existing practice, it may not be worthwhile changing to adopt this method for the few resource providers that are Shib-enabled. However, this may depend more on which providers are Shib-enabled. It may be that the few Shib-enabled providers account for a large majority of traffic.
 
Also, a campus must use some script or process to make the same decisions that EZProxy is making in the Maryland use-case. The benefit of EZProxy is that a faculty member, for example, can put a deep link to Elsevier on Blackboard, and that URL is pre-pended with a script. Off-campus users are sent through EZProxy for authentication. As more service providers are Shib-enabled, such URLs don’t need to be changed. All that needs to be changed is what’s inside EZProxy.
 
Steve said he has a sense that a set of European federations, working with libraries and vendors, would be interested in seeing David’s results. A next step may be to take the ideas generated by the EZProxy and Session Initiator discussions to such federations for consideration.
 
**Action Items from Last Call**
 
Steve asked for clarification on an action item from the last call: to develop a summary of what might be presented as use-cases – perhaps a flow chart that would demonstrate user experiences and impacts in a variety of situations, such as:
 

• On-campus in an office
• At a public terminal in the library
• Working at home or from another off-campus location
• Accessing resources from a different country
• Implementation from within a course management system.

The general agreement was to develop flow charts that would show decision points depending on whether or not Shib is being used.
 
[AI] Steve will write one of these up and post it to the list for feedback and refinement. Once a format is agreed on for one situation, the working group will develop the others.
 
**Internet2 Fall Member Meeting**
 
Holley Eggleston from UCSD will lead a session at the Internet2 Member Meeting in San Diego, describing Dave Kennedy’s Shibboleth/EZProxy test. [AI] Holley will outline the points to be made and organize an outline prior to the next call.
 
**Next call – Friday, Sept. 7., 12:30 p.m. EDT **