Simple, secure access to digital resources increases engagement and evidence indicates increased use of library resources leads to better outcomes. But there is a tension between ease of access, security, privacy and good user design. The RA21 initiative has reviewed the common tools available and will set standards for libraries and publishers to follow to deliver the best possible user experience. This session will look at some of the tools that can help set these standards
3. RESOURCE ACCESS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
RA21’s mission is to align and simplify pathways to subscribed content
across participating platforms. RA21 will address the common
problems users face when interacting with multiple and varied
information protocols.
www.ra21.org
4. openathens.org
What can we do?
1. Strive for a better understanding of the issues
2. Use the tools available today*; develop for the future
3. Work together*
29. openathens.org
The reality: user journey - students
Publisher’s
website
• Main search bar
• Google Scholar
• Reading lists and social
shares
• Video
• Images/Infographic
• Podcasts
• Discovery service
Library portal
• In site search
31. openathens.org
Students
• Can not access quality content
• They do not get the great experience they are paying for
Librarians
• Library services are not utilized
• Struggle to justify investment in resources, when faced with
low usage rates
Publishers
• Less traffic to their content
• Increased pressure to provide content for free
Bad news
for
everybody
44. What is RA21?
• RA21: Resource Access for the 21st Century
• Joint initiative of the International Association of STM Publishers (STM)
and the National Information Standards Organization (NISO)
• Aimed at optimizing access protocols across key stakeholder groups
• Corporate and university subscribers, libraries, software vendors,
publishers, identity federation operators, etc.
• Purpose: To a facilitate seamless user experience beyond IP address
recognition, supporting network security and user privacy
45. RA21 Goals
• Recommend new solutions for access strategies beyond IP
recognition in joint collaboration with software vendors,
libraries, federation operators
• RA21 as a project will not develop a specific technical solution
or one industry-wide authentication platform
45
46. RA21 UX Development
• Seeks to implement the same ease of use as found in
consumer web examples, while still preserving user privacy.
46
47. RA21 Roadmap 2018 and onwards
47
Q1 2018
Early outputs
Position papers
Q1-Q2 2018
Mid-term outputs
Task Forces: UX;
Security / privacy
Pilots: Options for
discovery; technology
platforms
Q2/ Q3 2018
Final
Recommendations
and open consultation
(via NISO process)
Q4 2018 and
onwards
Long Term outputs
Creation of and
involvement in
Operational User
Communities
Throughout RA21 and onwards
Ongoing outreach engagement
across key stakeholder communities
Beyond 2018:
STM hands over the
lead of the project to
NISO for adoption and
implementation by all
stakeholders
48. Outreach Activities
CNI - December 2016, April 2017
STM - December 2016, July 2017, December 2017
SSP - May 2017
JISC - July 2017
AGLIN Forum - August 2017
SURF - September 2017 Utrecht
Internet2 - October 2017 San Francisco
Charleston Conference - November 10, 2017
UKSG - November 16, 2017
CCC - hosted webinar November 16, 2017
RA21 in the News
Myth Busting: Five Commonly Held Misconceptions About
RA21 (and One Rumor Confirmed)
https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2018/02/07/myth-
busting-five-commonly-held-misconceptions-ra21/
UKSG Insight – Opinion Pieces: “Easy access to the version of
record (VoR) could help combat piracy: views from a
publishing technologist” Author: Tasha Mellins-Cohen. 10
July 2017.
Society for Scholarly Publishing – Scholarly Kitchen: “Failure
to Deliver: Reaching Users in an Increasingly Mobile World”
Author: Todd Carpenter. 15 June 2017.
Library Learning Space: “RA21 and libraries” 16 May 2017.
Index Data: “RA21 Project aims to ease remote access to
licensed content” Author: Peter Murray. 19 December
2016.
ALA Midwinter - January 20-24, 2018 Denver
PSP - February 7-9, 2018 DC
ER&L – March 6-8, 2018 Austin
MLA Insights – March 6, 2018 Chicago
ACS – March 18-22, 2018 New Orleans
STM – April 24-26, 2018 Philadelphia
MLA - May 18-23, 2018, Atlanta
SLA – June 9-13, 2018 Baltimore
54. openathens.org
Tool 3:
Run an authentication health
check
• Longest user journey
• Shortest user journey
• Do your apps talk to
each other?
• Link optimisation
55. openathens.org
OpenAthens products and services
• OpenAthens Federation – the environment in which exchange of encrypted
user data takes place
• OpenAthens Identity – our identity provider software
• OpenAthens Access– our access management software
56. openathens.org
What can we do?
1. Strive for a better understanding of the issues
2. Use the tools available today; develop for the future
3. Work together
Good morning everyone
Douglas Adams – total perspective vortex
People not aware of RA21?
Someone not too closely involved – what is this about?
It’s a thing
A fantastic, collaborative initiative
Reaching for the stars – it may be hit the moon
Progress not perfection
Engage with RA21 – come to events like this
Collaborate – understand the end user experience from many perspectives - UX
Books/SAML/Wayfinder
How many?
Librarians?
Publishers?
Technology or platform vendors?
personas
Professional publishing: Better decisions, better outcomes
Eduserv: a not for profit delivering technology services for public good
A federation is a network of trust
A federation provides a Trust fabric
A federation is a network of trust
A federation is a network of trust
A federation is a network of trust
A set of agreed policies
A technical infrastructure for the certified metadata
In 2016, Google’s CEO has announced that 20% of all searches on Android devices and Google app were carried out by voide. Comscore predicts 50% of all searches will be voice searches by 2020.
There is a lot of buzz around UCD, Design Thinking and UX. And there is a good reason for that. Being user centred transforms organisations, the way they work and the type of services they deliver.
This is the design process we use at OpenAthens:
We start with Discovery where we are validating the challenge with user research, then we follow up with interpretation of the discovery findings, which helps us to define the challenge. Only after we are confident we understand the problem we are faced with we explore ideas of how to solve the challenge. Each idea is then tested with users during the experimentation, before ideas are passed on to the development team for implementation. Once the new product or service is live we continue monitoring performance, making sure we identify any usability issues or change in user’s preferences as early as possible.
The General Data Protection Regulation and the e-privacy regulation proposal arising from the EU provide a strong set of considerations that act as powerful input to the expectations of the project.
All of the currently proposed pilots make use of SAML federated authentication technology which has in-built mechanisms for preserving privacy.
This puts the institution, and the user, fully in control of what personally identifiable information is disclosed to a resource provider via what are called “attribute release policies”.
Typically, academic SAML Identity Providers provide unique, persistent, but opaque identifiers, which provides a way for publishers to personalize services for users without knowing the actual identity of the individual.
Optionally, publishers may then ask for additional personal information from users via their normal registration processes, disclosing their privacy policies, in order to provide services which require the publisher to know the identity of the user, such as email alerts.
Identity providers: Education and research, healthcare, commercial (engineering, pharma, petrochemical), government, charity
Service providers: Academic publishers, online news, data and analytics, other subscription services provided via a web browser
Widespread understanding – our experience of corporate subs access with TandF.
The path of least resistance is not the answer
When in doubt go back to your user. Focus on them and build empathy.
There are a number of ways to do that but our favourite method is Guerrilla UX research.