ANALYSIS AND NEWS
ACCESS AND IDENTITY MANAGEMENT: GETTING AHEAD OF THE CURVE
It is well acknowledged that the library is no longer the starting point of the research process, says David Armstrong
I
t’s well acknowledged that the library is no longer the starting point of the research process1
.
As research becomes increasingly done on academics’, students’, and
staff’s own time, the role of the Systems Librarian – with the responsibility of maintaining and providing access to electronic resources – becomes ever more important. In December 2014, OpenAthens sponsored a survey of librarians’ experiences and perceptions of identity and access management, which raised the concept of being ‘ahead of the curve’ at their home institution with regards to identity and access management.
TBI recently went back to some of these librarians to find out what being ahead of this curve looks like to them, and any lessons and experiences which could help other institutions overcome some of those shared obstacles.
The curve, defined Identity and access management is multifaceted; every institution faces its own challenges that are unique to its situation, from trying to bridge isolated networks with their own security protocols, to working with a multitude of vendor platforms, each with their own configuration complexities. However, our discussions with 10 librarians from the UK and the USA revealed a single common goal that defines whether an institution can be classed as being ahead of the curve: providing users with a single login that grants access to any resource, irrespective of device or physical location. Needless to say, this comes with significant technical and infrastructure challenges to master, not least of which is a new skillset for library staff: an in- depth knowledge of how to configure their IAM systems and discovery portals, and a firm grasp of terminology that appears
occasionally impenetrable for those outside the field, are prerequisites for anyone who needs to set up or maintain access to electronic resources on behalf of their users. Listservs and virtual groups exist to share this knowledge, but some of our interviewees expressed concerns that potential or current employers could view such conversations as indicating a lack of knowledge amongst staff. Being ahead of the curve means not only knowing what needs to be done, then, but also the limitations of one’s own knowledge and who can be approached for advice when inevitable technical hitches occur.
Other interviewees believed that the curve denoted the provision of access to all the resources required by the breadth of their user base, particularly in the case of journal articles where it is a financial impossibility for an institution to subscribe to every title that may be of relevance to their users. With inter-library loan it’s feasible for a library to provide almost every article or book a user might need, albeit with a time delay for document delivery; but even in cases where a wide variety of resources are available, there is the difficult task of bringing them to users’ attention. Some institutions maintain lists of journals that the library subscribes to, but our interviewees voiced suspicions that these were not frequently referred to as they are outside of users’ normal information seeking workflows – and that access federation logins on publishers’ sites can obfuscate, rather than streamline, access to content, as users frequently assume the prompt implies that their institution holds a subscription, only to be further denied access once they’ve navigated ‘Where are You From’ (WAYF) systems. Addressing this has been a priority for many identity and access management systems, including OpenAthens’ new ‘Redirector’ feature2
. 8 Research Information OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015 Crossing over
User confusion such as this is a sign that a system needs more work, and this goes some way to explaining the drive towards single sign on solutions, with some interviewees providing anecdotes of staff struggling with multiple login details as part of their workflow (for example, one login for the institutional network and another for particular library resources). Our librarians also highlighted the challenge of ensuring students are receiving information literacy training – as echoed in the recent NMC Library Horizon Report3
– particularly in
healthcare systems libraries where students are typically encountering a very different set of resources and access challenges than at an educational institution. As a first step to addressing these challenges within the library, a joined-up or centralised authentication system is needed, with a focus on making processes as automated as possible. In one case our interviewees mentioned a turnaround time of two weeks for off-campus account activations due to the extra work involved in verifying a remote user’s identity
‘The increasing role of mobile devices in research workflows needs to be recognised at an institutional level’
(without the benefit of on-campus network access as an authentication token), combined with internal staffing levels. Manual oversight of such access is of course required, especially in healthcare scenarios where unauthorised access to sensitive patient information needs to be prevented, but interviewees felt that a more streamlined process could be of benefit to everyone.
The increasing role of mobile devices in research workflows needs to be recognised at an institutional level. While it’s doubtful that many students or researchers make a habit of reading full-length articles on a
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