Shibboleth at LSE
LSE Library
Shibbolising e-resources for LSE Library
- Introduction
- Testing & implementation details
- Vendor liaison
- Communicating with users (a different page)
- Shibbolisation progress pie charts (a different page)
Introduction
The London School of Economics and Political Science (with the help of a Projects Team based in the Library) was the first institution in the UK to start implementing Shibboleth. The LSE Library has installed Shibboleth software and is currently implementing its gradual transition to Shibboleth.
Until 31 July 2008, a large proportion of LSE electronic resources used Athens to provide off-campus access. The Library has now switched to using a combination of direct Shibboleth access and the Shibboleth implementation of EZProxy, as part of its gradual switch from Athens to Shibboleth.
Originally, the Library was going to make use of the Federation Gateways as a way of combining direct Shibboleth access with an alternative access method, as not all service providers had implemented federated access. The development of the Gateways was funded by JISC as a free transitional tool to help insitututions in their transition to federated access management, while waiting for more service providers implemented the same technology. The Gateways allow Shibboleth-enabled organisations to be able to access Athens protected resources, and to allow Athens users to be able to access Shibboleth-enabled resources. This plan was later abandoned, as a result of the JISC decision to stop funding the Gateways past July 2008. The Gateways are now known as OpenAthens and are run by Eduserv as a subscription-based service.
Testing & impelementation
Initial testing - Federation Gateways (2005-2006)
Most Athens-enabled resources were already Gateway-compliant but before the Library could provide Shibboleth access to those resources, the new access method had to be thoroughly tested. There were also some LSE resources (and the number was constantly growing) that were directly Shibboleth-compliant and did not require the use of the Gateway. The Library created a dedicated Shibboleth test folder in the Electronic Library to provide real-world testing of resources via Shibboleth.
The test procedures and findings were made available on this website and volunteer Library and IT staff, plus a few students were alerted of a new round to test and report.
The test results were analysed and used to update the FAM (Federated Access Management) status list of LSE Library e-resources (please note that this list is no longer kept up to date).
Round Two tests - Secondary Access Off-Campus Problem (Summer 2006)
During the Round 2 tests off-campus, a new type of problem was discovered whilst using an abstracting resource like Historical Abstracts via the Athens Gateway. When, via the LSE Article Finder, links to the full text of a sought article in a second repository such as JSTOR were clicked, that secondary access did not inherit the Athens Gateway access and delivered an error , even though JSTOR was by that time Gateway Compliant and working. The problem did not arise on-campus, probably because access is via IP address checking.
A similar situation arose off-campus when using the IBSS database via the Gateway Compliant SilverPlatter WebSPIRS interface. A sought article was found, the full text of which was offered via the SilverLinker system to various full text hosts. Two of these were Blackwell-Synergy and SwetsWise, which are Gateway Compliant, and passed their tests, but when the links were clicked the user was told (erroneously) that they had no subscription to that service. The only way to access the full text would be to remember the classic Athens username and password, defeating the Shibboleth ideal. The problem did not arise on-campus, again because access is via IP address checking.
Another case was found whilst attempting to access full text in ScienceDirect or Blackwell-Synergy (both of which were Athens Gateway Compliant at the time) from bibliographical records in SwetsWise .
See the Shibbolisation progress at LSE Library at July 06 pie chart
Summer 2008
As mentioned in the Introduction, in the end, a decision was made not to use the Federation Gateways. This meant that an alternative access method had to be found for resources that were not yet Shibbolth-enabled. The Library had already been using EZProxy to provide access to some resources and with its Shibboleth implementation being readily available, it was decided to shibbolise EZProxy and use that instead of the Gateways. The advantage of using shibbolised EZProxy is that it provides seamless access experience for users, who only need to use their institutional username & password to access the majority of LSE Library protected e-resources.
During spring 2008, the Library implemented shibbolised EZProxy and completed thorough tests to make sure that the new access method was working. Due to the time pressure to provide alternative access to a large number of previously Athens-enabled resources past July 2008 (when the JISC funding for the Athens service came to an end), it was decided to move the majority of resources over to shibbolised EZProxy, while enabling direct Shibboleth access to a small number of resources for testing purposes. This was done in time for the July switchover date.
See the Shibbolisation progress at LSE Library at Sept 08 pie chart
More service providers have now joined the UK Access Management Federation and the Library is gradually moving more resources over to direct Shibboleth access.
WAYF vs WAYFless URLs
Many libraries are taking the approach of embedding deep links into library portals and other web pages to make resource discovery easier for the end-user. Some service providers make it easier for libraries by providing an alternative ‘embedded link' (also known as a WAYFless URL), e.g. ScienceDirect. It is always worth asking a service provider whether they can supply a WAYFless URL. Simon Mcleish of the LSE Library Projects Team also produced some instructions on constructing WAYFless URLs.
The LSE Library conducted extensive testing of WAYFless URLs but in the end it was decided not to use them, as that would have had implications for Library visitors from UK federation member institutions.
Personalisation
There has been some concern amongst academic libraries that the existing personalisation features (e.g. saved searches or email alerts), based on the old Athens login, will be lost when the library moves to federated access management. Increasingly, publishers and service providers provide personalisation services for their federated access management users. An added advantage of using federated access management is that it allows service providers to personalise their service without being able to identify the actual user, which helps the institution to meet its responsibilities under the Data Protection legislation. If a user has already been using personalisation features, as an Athens user, it may be necessary for them to re-register these preferences after they first access a resource with a federated login. However, many service providers make personalisation features technology independent, so this may not apply to all Athens resources. Also, some resources, e.g. Zetoc, have enabled facilities for migrating existing Athens-enabled personalisation preferences.
The LSE was also concerned about the personalisation issue and conducted a small scale investigation into personalisation features offered by Athens-enabled LSE resources. It appeared that most resources used a separate registration process for their personalisation features, so it didn't actually matter which access method was used to access the resource.
Vendor liaison
The Federation Gateways were only intended as a temporary solution to providing Shibboleth access to a large number of scholarly e-resources available in the UK. Therefore, it is very important that publishers also implement Shibboleth directly, as well as (or instead of) the Gateway. There have been international discussions between academic institutions (coordinated by Internet2) with the aim of encouraging publishers to adopt Shibboleth as their main Access Management architecture. The JISC Access Management Team has also been doing a lot of work in this area. The LSE Projects Team has been actively participating in these discussions. Many major publishers have already implemented the new technology or are strongly supportive of Shibboleth, while others are working towards it.
The UK Access Management Federation for Education & Research - live services list
For more information or to give feedback, please email info@angel.ac.uk .