News

SeamlessAccess intends to improve the way people from universities and colleges around the globe access content and services. To better understand the diverse situation in these institutions we have constructed two short surveys, available till March 27th 2020: One for people working in libraries in universities/colleges One for people working in IT in universities and colleges Please either fill out the survey or forward it to mailing lists, websites, or other forums followed by people working in academic libraries or IT.

Following feedback before and during the Internet2 Technology Exchange, the Seamless Access program is reviewing the permissible use of the stored Identity Provider (IdP) preference information when using some of the SeamlessAccess.org integration models (see our “Getting Started” page for more information about the different integration models). What we realized is that in its current form, authorized Service Providers (SPs) using the advanced integration model may be able to access stored IdP choices before a user logs into that SP’s service.

This guide is for non-technical people who want to understand how attribute release enables secure and privacy-preserving access to online library resources using federated identity management. If you first want to read up on what federated identity management is, you can find a basic introduction here. What are attributes? Attributes contain information about an end user that are passed to a publisher or service provider after authentication. Think of a name, email address etc.

Taking the findings of the RA21 initiative to the next level, SeamlessAccess.org intends to support a streamlined federated authentication experience when using scholarly collaboration tools, information resources, and shared research infrastructure. The service will promote digital authentication leveraging an existing single-sign-on infrastructure through one’s home institution, while maintaining an environment that protects personal data and privacy. The service aims to enable simple, trusted use of scholarly resources and services anytime, anywhere, and on any device.