Changes to authentication of Library resources.

19 Sep 2008

Electronic resources now accessible with central usernames and passwords.

The John Rylands University Library and IT Services are pleased to announce the implementation of local authentication to allow staff and students of the University to use their central usernames and passwords for single sign-on access to many electronic library resources which were previously protected by Athens.

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) is no longer funding the Athens service and has instead launched the UK Access Management Federation, which universities and service providers have joined in order to implement federated access management. Federated access management is more secure and flexible than Athens authentication and it will no longer be necessary to obtain and remember an additional username and password for remote access to many library resources.

On campus most resources are accessed on the basis of IP address and so the change mainly affects remote access to Athens authenticated services. Although Athens accounts will continue to work for the time being, where possible the Library will be changing links to these services to enable users to log in using their central usernames and passwords.