Upcoming (and Past) Events

On October 14, Heather Flanagan will be speaking about SeamlessAccess and related topics at “Cyber Security in Higher Education”, sponsored by SNSI. Register here

On 24 September, Heather Staines spoke about SeamlessAccess in the webinar “Identity in Research Infrastructure: An overview of how identity is managed in scholarly infrastructure” during Peer Review Week 2021. A recording of the session is available here.

Emerald integrates with SeamlessAccess

Emerald Publishing has implemented SeamlessAccess on the Emerald Insight platform, making it easier for researchers to seamlessly access research from any place and any device. The implementation was done through an integration with LibLynx’s identity & access solution.

In a joint Press Release, Hylke Koers underlined the network effect that underpins the value SeamlessAccess in delivering to users, and how every new integration strengthens this: “We are delighted that Emerald has integrated the SeamlessAccess service on its Insight platform, helping researchers enjoy easy and safe access to content from any location. SeamlessAccess remembers the user’s institutional choice across different publishers’ websites, which means that publishers who join SeamlessAccess – in addition to receiving direct benefits - also contribute to a broader network effect that improves access experiences for researchers across the scholarly web.”

FAQ on Browser Privacy Changes and Library Resource Access

Earlier this year, we already spoke and wrote about upcoming changes to the way that browsers work that are bound to have a significant impact on how researchers access online resources. This is relevant not only for federated authentication (the mechanism that SeamlessAccess builds upon) but also for IP-based access mechanisms, which are still in wide use today in the research community.

The feedback that we have received tells us that the information we shared was found to be really valuable, but equally that there is a significant gap in knowledge and awareness about these changes. In order to help close this gap, we have put together an FAQ on Browser Privacy Changes and Library Resource Access. While the FAQ is primarily intended for librarians and IT departments, we expect that many others will find it useful as well.

SeamlessAccess.org is a service designed to help streamline the online access experience for researchers using scholarly collaboration tools, information resources, and shared research infrastructure. This service is governed as a coalition between four organizations: GÉANT, Internet2, the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), and the International Association of STM Publishers. Participants include researchers, service providers, libraries, identity providers, and federation operators. We’re excited to bring you up to date on the latest news.