13-March-2009

The InCommon Library Services Collaboration has completed the first phase of its project to improve on-campus and off-campus access to protected library resources. The project became known as the Shibboleth/EZProxy hybrid solution. The collaboration now enters its second phase, a pilot project, and is inviting interested institutions to join.

The Phase 1 work involved librarians and central IT staff from six US-based campuses and is outlined at https://spaces.internet2.edu/display/inclibrary/InC-Library. The libraries were interested in using Shibboleth to standardize the user experience for on-campus, off-campus, and walk-up patrons.

Because of the large number of licenses in place at typical libraries, however, it was assumed that a flash cutover to Shibboleth was impossible; instead, the group pursued a hybrid approach involving Shibboleth and a product such as EZProxy. The group concentrated on moving 90+ percent of licensed-site traffic to Shibboleth and providing added value to on-campus users of Shibboleth-enabled resources.

Now the collaboration is inviting institutions interested in implementing the hybrid solution -- and working with others to make it better (Phase 2). Participating schools will deploy and test -- probably in a stepwise fashion and within their production environments -- the hybrid approach identified in Phase 1.

In the next phase, 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.

For more information on participation and call information, see the wiki page:
https://spaces.internet2.edu/display/inclibrary/InC-Library