Abstract
The world is hungry for knowledge and quickly-producing researchers of varying caliber who are less dependent on the physical space than ever before. This presents a number of challenges to librarians, out of which issues related to technology stand out prominently. How can the library pave roads to curated digital content and make it easily accessible from any location? How does it remain relevant in the age of Google, sophisticated piracy and the open access movement? The chapter begins with an overview of IP-based and federated access technologies, touching on less-used methods as well. Personally-conducted interviews with library industry experts aim to determine current trends in order to provide a collective insight into future developments. These include the widespread migration towards cloud-based services, the global RA21 initiative, the open access movement, the need for better statistics, and new ways of content delivery, all of which affect libraries' demands for remote access in different ways.
TopBackground
The days when research was conducted exclusively in the library with a select few academics sitting amongst admirable piles of books, are gone. The world is hungry for knowledge and quickly producing researchers of varying calibre who are less dependent on the physical space than ever before. This presents a number of challenges to librarians, out of which issues related to technology stand out prominently. How can the library pave roads to curated digital content and make it easily accessible from any location? How does it remain relevant in the age of Google, Wikipedia, and sophisticated piracy as well as the open access movement? To find answers to these questions, one must courageously indulge in the understanding of existing and upcoming technologies. Why so? A wide sample of librarians the author had the privilege to speak to believe that in the world of technological revolution and the generation of the digital native users, this is what the future of the library will depend on, its ability to continuously innovate itself in ways of knowledge delivery to those who seek it.
Key Terms in this Chapter
RA21: Resource Access for the 21 st Century, a joint STM and NISO initiative looking to improve user experience when accessing scientific online resources.
IPv6: A new version of connected device identifier, intended to replace IPv4. Looks like this: 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334.
IDentity Provider (IDP): Creates and manages virtual identities for users. Examples of IdP systems: ADFS, Shibboleth, OpenAthens, Ping Identity, OKTA, etc.
VPN: Virtual private network. Facilitates secure access to private networks over the internet.
Rewriting Proxy Server: A server that dynamically changes web URLs to point back to itself and acts as an intermediary between the user and the content provider, processing all traffic.
IPv4 Address: An identifier assigned to each device connected to a computer network. Looks like this: 185.222.219.127.
EZProxy: A popular proxy solution, known to most librarians around the world.
SSO (Single Sign-On): A set of technologies allowing user login once and access to all permissible applications.
TLS 1.2: The latest version of TLS, formerly known as SSL and often used interchangeably. Encrypts data in transit to ensure secure transmission, used on most https websites.
Federation: A collective of Service Providers and Identity Providers that trust each other.
Service Provider (SP): Makes authorization decisions to grant or deny access to content based on the attributes about the user, received from the Identity Provider.
Shibboleth: An open-source federated access management system, used to facilitate single sign on and secure access to online resources.
OpenAthens: A popular cloud based single sign on solution for content providers and institutions. Aids access management using both federated and proxy access methods.
SAML: Security Assertion Markup Language, designed to facilitate secure password-less access and SSO between individual applications and on the web.