[Wactclc-alma] EzProxy alternative

[Guidry, Wade]

I saw a post on librarydir from Candice at TCC that made me aware of something I didn't know... that some of the content vendors support LTI for remote content access.

So, Ryer, as a near term workaround (and maybe you're already doing this), you could make ProQuest, Ebsco and Gale searchable remotely from within Canvas, if a user is authenticated in Canvas.

It looks like all 3 of them the primary providers offer this capability:

How to set up ProQuest as an External Tool within Canvas using LTI 1.3 Deep Linking Technology<https://support.proquest.com/s/article/How-to-set-up-ProQuest-as-an-External-Tool-within-Canvas-using-LTI-1-3-Deep-Linking-Technology?language=en_US>

LTI in EDS/EBSCOhost - Frequently Asked Questions<https://connect.ebsco.com/s/article/LTI-in-EDS-EBSCOhost-General-Overview?language=en_US#:~:text=LTI%20integration%20is%20native%20to,Yes.>

Gale and Your LMS (cengage.com)<https://assets.cengage.com/gale/docs/training/LMS_ResourceGuide.pdf>

This info may be of interest to others as well. Especially those of you who might be working closely with your Canvas admins.

It would just be a alternate was to make remote access available.



Wade Guidry
Library Consortium Services Manager, WACTCLC
wadeg at bigbend.edu<mailto:wadeg at bigbend.edu>
(509) 760-4474
http://www.wactclc.org<http://www.wactclc.org/>

From: Wactclc-alma <wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu> On Behalf Of Ryer Banta
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2022 2:58 PM
To: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>
Subject: Re: [Wactclc-alma] EzProxy alternative

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Hi Wade,

Thanks for your thoughts and options. You are correct that our users can log into Canvas and Microsoft. We have not had EzProxy logins connected to those systems, even though we've wanted this for a while.

I thought the same thing - they must have a back-up server through Azure, AWS, or something. They do something with Azure, but they say they can't do this. They tried to make it sound like a really big deal to configure firewalls on a server. Maybe it is a big deal in this scenario, but it doesn't quite add up for me.

Thanks for the tip on LIRN, sounds interesting.

We will probably go down the OCLC-hosted route. I suppose it will help us provide better service continuity in case of local outages with happen here occasionally.

Thanks again,

Ryer Banta
Information Literacy and Technology Librarian
Pronouns: he/him/his
Centralia College
360-623-8121
Ryer.Banta at centralia.edu<https://mail.centralia.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=fNEFFUiOcJn8XZD_VNaqVEixJx9QWtNlXDDsY0izFrXf1xAoVYvYCA..&URL=mailto%3aRyer.Banta%40centralia.edu>
Schedule an Appointment<https://centralia.libcal.com/appointments/ryer>
________________________________
From: Wactclc-alma <wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu>> on behalf of Guidry, Wade <WadeG at bigbend.edu<mailto:WadeG at bigbend.edu>>
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2022 9:25 AM
To: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Wactclc-alma] EzProxy alternative


Ryer,



It looks to me like authentication is operational at Centralia, appeas to be operational for Canvas and Email:



Current Students / Logins (centralia.edu)<http://www.centralia.edu/resources/current.aspx>



So, seems like it would be available for EZProxy as well.



And I would be surprised if they don't have at least one server running locally or in AWS or Azure where they could install EZProxy.



OpenAthens requires campus authentication, and is a more complex solution than EZProxy.







You could look at whether the big 3 (ProQuest / Gale / Ebsco) still support barcodes for account authentication. You upload a set of IDs to the vendor, or specify a barcode pattern, and those IDs are used on the vendor side as per-user authentication. It's what a lot of public libraries do, or used to do. I'm guessing it's still a thing.



Another workaround would be to join the LIRN consortium (www.lirn.org<http://www.lirn.org>) for $1,000 / year, which gives you access to their custom proxy service (LIRNProxy | Library & Information Resources Network<https://www.lirn.net/products-and-services/lirn-services/lirn-proxy/>). Their hosted proxy service utilizes something called LTI, which Canvas supports. It would basically do proxy authentication against your Canvas service. Setting this up would involve cooperation from your technology organization.







Wade Guidry

Library Consortium Services Manager, WACTCLC

wadeg at bigbend.edu<mailto:wadeg at bigbend.edu>

(509) 760-4474

http://www.wactclc.org<http://www.wactclc.org/>



From: Wactclc-alma <wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu>> On Behalf Of Ryer Banta
Sent: Friday, March 11, 2022 1:06 PM
To: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>>
Subject: [Wactclc-alma] EzProxy alternative



CAUTION: Originated outside our network. Do not click links or open attachments unless you validate the sender.




Hello colleagues,



I'm still working to restore EzProxy after our cyberattack. Our IT department won't be able to restore our own servers any time soon, and even cloud servers are off the table. They like the sound of OCLC-hosted EzProxy, which is expensive, but nice. But even that will takes months, so that's a bit frustrating. Even if we go with OCLC-hosted, our IT can't do anything with authentication until summer, so that is doubly tough to swallow.



Does anyone use Open Athens for remote authentication? Or do you know of any other options we should consider? If you use OCLC-hosted, I'd appreciate any thoughts on what you love or hate about it.



Thank you and happy Friday.



Ryer Banta

Information Literacy and Technology Librarian

Pronouns: he/him/his

Centralia College

360-623-8121

Ryer.Banta at centralia.edu<https://mail.centralia.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=fNEFFUiOcJn8XZD_VNaqVEixJx9QWtNlXDDsY0izFrXf1xAoVYvYCA..&URL=mailto%3aRyer.Banta%40centralia.edu>

Schedule an Appointment<https://centralia.libcal.com/appointments/ryer>
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