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Peer Review

Access to Online Resources: A Guide for the Modern Librarian

Reviewed:

Feb 24, 2023 by Library and Information Services
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Ratings

Overall Rating: 4.2 stars
Content Quality: 4.2 stars
Effectiveness: 4.0 stars
Ease of Use: 4.5 stars
Overview:

This book offers a concise guide for librarians, helping them understand the challenges, processes and technologies involved in managing access to online resources. After an introduction the book presents cases of general authentication and authorisation. It helps readers understand web based authentication and provides the fundamentals of IP address recognition in an easy to understand manner. A special chapter is dedicated to Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), followed by an overview of the key concepts of OpenID Connect. The book concludes with basic troubleshooting guidelines and recommendations for further assistance. Librarians will benefit from this quick and easy read, which demystifies the technologies used, features real-life scenarios, and explains how to competently employ authentication and access management.

Type of Material:

Open (Access) Textbook

Recommended Uses:

individual, reference

Technical Requirements:

PDF reader, internet access for download

Identify Major Learning Goals:

  • Librarians and library students will understand the processes and technologies involved in managing access to online resources.
  • Librarians and library students will be able to do basic troubleshooting related to online resources access management.
Target Student Population:

Graduate School, Professional

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Basic computer skills and basic knowledge of access management.

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:

  • Overall, it does a good job of summarizing and explaining technologies that can be difficult to understand if you are unfamiliar with them. This book is intended for users without a degree in technology who are or will be in charge of access management. The book’s language is informal and conversational, which matches the needs of the intended user.
  • The book is supported by appropriate research with a bibliography and citations throughout the text.
  • It could be used as reference or reading either by a professional or graduate student.
Concerns:

Technologies change quickly, and the information could easily become outdated. The HTTPS information appears outdated, as many websites have moved to HTTPS but do not require a username/password.

The material was written by an OpenAthens representative, so this must be kept in mind when reading the text.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:

  • The beginning of the book explains its intended purpose and audience.
  • The book is intended for professionals, but could be used in a library science graduate program as well. However, this would need to be incorporated in a course that covers some basics of access management before introducing this book as a reading.
  • The concepts are progressively introduced and explains how they relate to one another. The length of the book is 45 pages, but it does not seem that long when reading it due the effective use of charts and figures. This makes it an efficient reference guide for those wanting to learn more about access management.
  • The book provides a useful introduction and lays a foundation for users who can then seek out more detailed sources to learn more.
Concerns:

The text, while still relevant, could use updating, and it will likely require frequent updating in the future. The overview provided is rather shallow and users working with access management and authorization issues will likely need to seek out additional resources.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:

  • The introduction clearly states the intent of the book.
  • The content is organized logically and is easily navigated in the pdf.
  • The design is well done and professional. There are charts and graphs that help explain the concepts in a visual form. These are not only visually appealing, but they also help with understanding the different concepts.
  • While there are not many interactive elements within the text (e.g. no quizzes), it provides ways to interact with the text on the job. For example, it has a great flow chart on 60 second diagnostics. The conversational tone of the text also makes it engaging.
Concerns:

While easy to navigate, a pdf is a static document.

The PDF is slightly blurry in sections, as though the authors did not properly create the PDF for web viewing.

Other Issues and Comments:

Overall, this is a good introduction to topics useful to librarianship, but because it is about technology, sections are quickly becoming out of date. It is easy to use, easy to read, and provides good examples. The only real drawback is the swiftness with which technology changes.

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