IPSWICH, Mass. — October 23, 2014 — EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) is making it possible for organizations to provide their users with a single access portal though which they can discover and seamlessly access all library resources regardless of where that content is located. EBSCO has expanded its partnership with OpenAthens from Eduserv to provide a single sign-on solution which allows users to avoid using multiple passwords to log in to the organization’s accounts.
The agreement builds on a successful collaboration between EBSCO and OpenAthens in Australia and New Zealand and allows EBSCO to resell OpenAthens to customers around the world. Combining OpenAthens with EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) and Full-Text Finder™ (FTF) creates an access portal that can discover all library resources along with an authentication system that provides seamless access across virtually all content providers. EDS and FTF can be configured to sense a user’s authentication method and provide appropriate links to target sites.
“We’re really excited to be building on our partnership with EBSCO,” said Stuart Pearce, Executive Director of OpenAthens. “Over the past eight years we have developed a close working relationship with EBSCO in Australia and New Zealand and developed close integration between OpenAthens and EBSCO products. In recent times this relationship has spread to other parts of the world including Canada, Spain, Holland, India and South Africa. This has built the foundations for this new global agreement at a time when we believe we can deliver significant value to our mutual customers through increased efficiency and deliver a great user experience. Our customers will be able to take advantage of the complementary products, making access for their users simple and available anywhere.”
Using the single sign-on approach to authentication, OpenAthens allows an institution to centrally manage its users and the resources they can access. OpenAthens supports both IP and username/password authentication to allow on-campus users to authenticate without a username/password. It works with content providers that offer authentication using: OpenAthens; Shibboleth; IP Address (requires subscription to OpenAthens Managed Proxy); or username/password.
EBSCO Chief Product Strategist, Oliver Pesch says that bringing together OpenAthens with EBSCO provides an exceptional solution. “Customers want seamless access and single sign-on for their users to access content no matter where that content resides. OpenAthens offers the best of all worlds with the added bonus of central reporting.”
The OpenAthens/EBSCO solution provides an option for organizations where single sign-on is a major need but is difficult to achieve with conventional approaches. It can serve organizations that must have “named user” capabilities that transcend their firewalls and integrate with third-party research and learning products and institutions that are required by law to strictly control access to their intranet as well for organizations that want to enjoy the benefits of single sign-on but lack the technical infrastructure or expertise to support the authentication method.
For more information about using OpenAthens with EBSCO resources, visit: http://www.ebscohost.com/discovery/technology/openathens.
About OpenAthens/Eduserv
OpenAthens has more than 4 million users worldwide including a large proportion of UK universities and universities across the world, prestigious medical organizations worldwide including the Department of Veterans Affairs in North America, the National Health Service in the UK, South Australia Health, and global corporate research organizations including Abbvie and Philips Research. For more information on OpenAthens see our website, watch our videos or follow us on Twitter.
Eduserv is a not-for-profit IT services company. Services include identity and access management, managed cloud and digital development.
About EBSCO Information Services
EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) is the leading discovery service provider for libraries worldwide with more than 6,000 discovery customers in over 100 countries. EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) provides each institution with a comprehensive, single search box for its entire collection, offering unparalleled relevance ranking quality and extensive customization. EBSCO is also the preeminent provider of online research content for libraries, including hundreds of research databases, historical archives, point-of-care medical reference, and corporate learning tools serving millions of end users at tens of thousands of institutions. EBSCO is the leading provider of electronic journals & books for libraries, with subscription management for more than 360,000 serials, including more than 57,000 e-journals, as well as online access to more than 600,000 e-books. For more information, visit the EBSCO website at: www.ebsco.com. EBSCO Information Services is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., a family owned company since 1944.
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For more information, please contact:
Kathleen McEvoy
Vice President of Communications
(800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
kmcevoy@ebsco.com
Jo Bridger
Head of Marketing Communications
+44 (0) 1225 474 307
Jo.Bridger@eduserv.org.uk
