2022, ERM, GENERAL, OpenAthens, PROJECT 

TCB: Technical Services in Religion and Theology 

OpenAthens offers ISO 27001 standard-compliant, federated Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) based authentication for patrons remotely accessing library subscribed e-resources from off-site locations. At The University of Toledo Libraries, we utilize optional integrations with university IT maintained software systems so that patron authentication is confirmed via successful login with the university’s single sign-on, which grants OpenAthens-level authorizations for the patron’s active web browser session. With anonymization methods in place, OpenAthens then interacts with e-resource sites in the background to unlock library-subscribed content based on the patron’s locally set e-resource allocations, without the patron’s active participation in each resource-specific login workflow. Among other benefits, OpenAthens limits the number of unique username/password combinations a patron must maintain for remote library access, reducing patron clicks when accessing multiple subscribed resources during a single browser session. Our use of the optional integrations allows patron roster maintenance and its primary security to remain under university IT control, while allowing library staff to allocate and maintain connections between OpenAthens and hundreds of e-resources as subscription statuses change. 

Open Access 

Keating, C. (2022). Administering OpenAthens Authentication: An Introductory Toolkit for Librarians. TCB: Technical Services in Religion & Theology, 30(3), Article 3. https://doi.org/10.31046/tcb.v30i2.3073