InCommon Library Services

Title: Transition from Phase 1 to Phase 2

We have reached the end of the first part of our library services project and will soon enter Phase 2. Please read on and consider joining the second phase, in which we will implement the solution that was defined in Phase 1.
 

In addition, we have a reorganized wiki and are asking for your review and feedback (see below).

Phase 1 is now closing down. One reason for writing this note is to thank everyone for their help and participation. This was clearly a group effort, and the results show that. Different campuses, different people brought different issues and different perspectives to our conversations. The end result is richer for that.

Phase 1 involved librarians and central IT staff from six US-based campuses. They worked to:
 
1) identify the technology, policy, and business practice issues that campuses would have to address if they were to add Shibboleth to the access control framework currently used to limit access to library licensed resources, 
 
2) identify and test -- in a standalone environment -- approaches to addressing each of these issues,
 
3) identify some advanced use cases (e.g. the abstract service/OpenURL/Shib/deep link to an article use case) and test approaches, and
 
4) develop a model for combining Shib + EZproxy to deliver added value to all parties.
 
The group was particularly cognizant that librarians and library users would face different issues, but that each groups' concerns were important. Because of the large number of licenses in place at R1 libraries, it was assumed that a flash cutover to Shibboleth was impossible; instead, the group assumed that a hybrid approach (involving Shibboleth and a product such as EZProxy)  would be in place for some time. The group concentrated, instead, on moving 90+% of licensed-site traffic to Shibboleth, and providing added value to on-campus users of Shibboleth-enabled resources. Information about Phase 1 is available at https://spaces.internet2.edu/display/inclibrary/InC-Library.
 
Phase 2 will be starting soon. We are looking for colleges and universities interested in implementing this solution -- and working with others in making it better. Participating schools will be deploying and testing -- probably in a stepwise fashion, and within their production environments  -- the hybrid approach identified in Phase 1.
 
In addition, JISC in the UK recently put out an RFP to explore many of the same issues. (Note that UK Higher Ed recently completed a countrywide conversion from Athens authentication to Shibboleth.)
 
Phase 2 participants will be actively exploring
 
1) how Shibboleth and EZProxy can be combined to create a more reliable, functional, and transparent environment for students, faculty, and librarians, and
 
2) new ways of providing an SSO experience across a wider variety of resources.
 
You will find a reorganized wiki for the library services collaboration with a summary of Phase I, including several pages of information about the effort. You will note that Dean has taken the background information that some schools provided and turned them into use cases.
 
One thing we'd like is to get any feedback on the wiki (both its new organization and the content) and also make sure we have your permission to make this information public.
 
You'll see the InC-Library wiki main page here:
 https://spaces.internet2.edu/display/inclibrary/InC-Library

And the Phase I page ("Understanding the Problem") here:
https://spaces.internet2.edu/display/inclibrary/InC-Library+-+Understanding+the+Problem

I hope that some of you will be willing to participate in Phase II and put our work into action.

Please email me directly and let me know.