Programmer Analyst IV University of Southern California
Discovery of and access to library materials happen everywhere at network level . Library patrons now increasingly begin their discovery journey at publisher’s website and Google Scholar, or via citation managers. The recent Ithaka S+R survey finds that only 14 percent of faculty members begin their literature search from library website (Blankstein, 2022). Over the years, libraries and vendors focus heavily on improving library catalog’s discoverability of and access to library digital content within the institutional domain. This traditional IP-based and proxy-authenticated access model, however, can fall short of supporting access outside library’s website. This issue is further complicated by factors related to authentication, entitlement, metadata quality, and privacy in the discover-to-delivery ecosystem. At University of Southern California Libraries, we explore a set of new and possible access solutions. In this presentation, we will highlight the pros and cons of three groups of alternatives: 1. federated access tools: InCommons, Google CASA, SeamlessAccess, and OpenAthens; 2. access facilitators: GetFTR and LibKey Nomad; 3. hosted solution, IP Registry. We will further share our strategies in integrating these alternative solutions with our default EZporxy-based single-sign-on service in facilitating patron’s access to library content.