UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN OpenURL Link Resolver Implementation Team (OLRIT)

Charge #7: Ensure that appropriate user authorization mechanisms are in place

The vast majority of our online resources are either freely open to the world or they are licensed for use by the entire campus population. Many of these resources support OpenURL and/or can be targeted by a link resolver.

Currently almost all of our online resources are authorized at the vendor's end by apparent IP address of the user. Thus, authentication of the user only comes into play if they are located off campus. By using the Library's proxy service or CITES' VPN (with a specific configuration), the user never needs to authenticate themselves to the online resource.

We will configure SFX so that if the user's apparent IP address is not authorized, any target links SFX presents in its "menu" to resources that require IP-address-based authorization will be automatically modified to incorporate the use of the Library's proxy server for off-campus access. Thus on-campus users and off-campus users already being "proxied" seamlessly and properly continue through any number of intermediate visits to the SFX menu. Also, an off-campus user whose web browser session has not yet been authenticated will be prompted to log into the proxy service. As soon as they do, their session will continue unhindered.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library Gateway Homepage Comments to: John Weible Updated: Friday, 17-Jun-2005 14:16:43 CDT jdw