Evaluating SCLS authentication services
As you probably know, SCLS provides authentication services for Online Resources (OverDrive, Flipster, Ancestry, WorldCat, and others, as well as many library-subscribed resources).
One of the projects on the 2017 and 2018 Technology Plans was an evaluation of the SCLS authentication service, which included investigating commercial products which could potentially replace our home-grown solution. Our initial review of possible options didn’t yield a clear winner, and some other time-sensitive projects have cropped up in the meantime. For these reasons, we’ll be making some changes to the existing system and picking up the evaluation of possible products again in spring.
Upcoming changes
In upcoming months, SCLS staff will make a number of changes to both improve statistics as well as simplify support for SCLS staff. Some of these changes will include:
- Authenticating LINKcat OverDrive users against the live Koha database (instead of against yesterday's data)
- Making updates with vendors and scripts to improve availability of vendor-provided COUNTER-compliant library statistics
- Sending BadgerLink traffic straight to BadgerLink (as opposed to SCLS authenticating users and sending them to the vendor)
- Eventually, doing live lookups of LINKcat patrons against Koha instead of against yesterday's exported patron data
Additional details about all of the above can be found in this document (pdf).
What this means to SCLS libraries
After SCLS staff make changes...
- links to many databases will change, and libraries will need to update these on their websites
- usage statistics for library-subscribed databases will be more accurate
- usage statistics for BadgerLink databases will be available for in-library use only (but will be more accurate)
More information will be shared here on the SCLS Technology News blog, as well as with various email lists and the weekly Top 5 as SCLS staff begin to make changes.
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