| What is the name of your committee? | Authentication and Authorization Committee |
| Your Name | Zhaneille Green |
| Your Email | zbg@duke.edu |
| If your committee is part of a section, please select it (if applicable) | Technology |
| Which report are you submitting? | May |
| How many times did your group meet during this reporting period? | 4-6 |
| First Activity | |
| Please summarize work accomplished, decisions made, and follow-up actions determined during the past 6 months. Your summary can be a narrative or bullet points, see below for reporting on specific areas. |
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| Second Activity | |
| If your committee has a specific strategic goal assigned, update any progress made on this goal. |
N/A |
| Third Activity | |
| Deliverables (Fill in bullet point and progress made) |
|
| Ongoing Work (Fill in bullet point and progress made) |
|
| Fourth Activity | |
| What will your group be working on for the next 6 months? Write these goals in SMART goal format. |
|
| Fifth Activity | |
| How did your work contribute to diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, or belonging within Core or the library profession? What areas of improvement do you see for your committee or Core in these areas? |
We have increased our efforts to demystify the technical areas of authentication for librarians and library students so they can be better informed on areas important to us like patron and data privacy. I presented at a Tech conference (geared towards IT who work in libraries) and presented on authentication complexities using my institution as a case study. I did this to highlight that librarians should be seen as collaborators and not excluded from the conversation
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| Is there anything Core could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work? | N/A |
| Please provide suggestions for future education topics, initiatives, publications, resources, or other activities that could be developed based on your group’s work. | We already shared the idea of our webinar collection. |
| Please describe anything you need to bring to the Core Board or section leadership for discussion or action at their next meeting. | |
| Please share any additional comments, concerns, or suggestions you have. | |
| Today’s Date | 06/26/2025 |
Category: Authentication and Authorization Committee
Federated Authentication Committee – May 2024 Report
| What is the name of your committee? | Federated Authentication Committee |
| Your Name | Justine Withers |
| Your Email | justine.withers@wnmu.edu |
| If your committee is part of a section, please select it (if applicable) | Technology |
| Which report are you submitting? | May |
| How many times did your group meet during this reporting period? | 4-6 |
| First Activity | |
| Please summarize work accomplished, decisions made, and follow-up actions determined during the past 6 months. Your summary can be a narrative or bullet points, see below for reporting on specific areas. |
see Deliverables and Ongoing Work for more |
| Second Activity | |
| If your committee has a specific strategic goal assigned, update any progress made on this goal. |
n/a |
| Third Activity | |
| Deliverables (Fill in bullet point and progress made) |
|
| Ongoing Work (Fill in bullet point and progress made) |
[The following items are currently published under “Deliverables” on our web page.]
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| Fourth Activity | |
| What will your group be working on for the next 6 months? Write these goals in SMART goal format. |
|
| Fifth Activity | |
| How did your work contribute to diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, or belonging within Core or the library profession? What areas of improvement do you see for your committee or Core in these areas? |
The February webinar gathered panelists from small institutions, both public and academic, to discuss how they participate in the authentication technology ecosystem. We have been able to recruit committee members who represent these institutions as well. This supports a wider population in the United States. Our ALA 2024 session will again directly support Information Policy by educating librarians on the relationship between authentication technology and privacy concerns. Members of vulnerable communities are especially affected and concerned by threats to privacy and we can support those communities by safeguarding their privacy. Our educational efforts are making an area that can be heavily technical more easily understood by a broader group of library workers. We hope this will increase the voices who participate in technology conversations. |
| Is there anything Core could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work? | We experienced great delays in working with the Programming Committee to plan our February webinar. They did not provide a registration method until three (?) days before the session was scheduled. They also did not offer any marketing support, to the best of my knowledge. The webinar was still successful and I don't know the cause of the delays. Rachel Fleming is STILL AMAZING as our board liaison: always willing to help and answer questions. |
| Please provide suggestions for future education topics, initiatives, publications, resources, or other activities that could be developed based on your group’s work. | We are already working with the Programming Committee on this. |
| Please describe anything you need to bring to the Core Board or section leadership for discussion or action at their next meeting. | We have not yet heard the Board’s decision on the changes to our committee charge and by-laws. |
| Please share any additional comments, concerns, or suggestions you have. | |
| Today’s Date | 06/01/2024 |
Federated Authentication Committee – December 2023 Report
The group met 4-6 times this quarter.
Committee Work
Summary of work accomplished, decisions made, and follow-up actions determined during the past 6 months
- approved updates to committee title and charge, to be sent to the Core Board for a vote
- wrote by-laws, to be sent to the Core By-laws committee
- recruited additional technical advisors from service providers
- Collaborated with Marshall Breeding to add two new questions about authentication to his annual Library Automation Perceptions Survey; the results will inform our future projects
- Michelle Urberg will start writing for the Scholarly Kitchen regularly and the committee will support her in gathering information.
see Deliverables and Ongoing Work for more
Progress on Goal Assigned in the Strategic Plan
n/a
Progress on Deliverables
- Documentation for the committee and Core’s relationship with the Seamless Access community — tbd
- Collaborate with the Continuing Education Coordination Committee to host a series of structured webinars to educate the library community on federated authentication and implications for libraries [newly stated] — series of three webinars is in development by Dolly Lopez, Peter McCracken, Michael Scott, Eugenia Beh; first one will be in February
- Present at ALA Annual and Core Forum [newly stated] — Thomas Dowling and Amanda Ferrante participated in a panel discussion along with two guests, Russell Palmer and Win Shih, at ALA Annual 2023. They covered federated authentication and privacy issues. Michelle Colquitt, Hong Ma, and Justine Withers presented information about upcoming changes to browser technology at Core Forum 2023 and gathered a lot of input from attendees. Our proposal has been accepted for ALA Annual 2024.
- Create a central hub for reference and training materials [newly stated] — we are collecting resources and have shared many of them via emails to the listserv. The next step is to create a public link to a central repository.
Progress on Ongoing Work
[The following items are currently published under “Deliverables” on our web page.]
- Create a community of practice for managing access and authentication to electronic resources — In addition to our planned educational events, we have begun recruiting people as a testing pool who can report issues and possible solutions to a central repository. This includes public libraries.
- Provide regular updates to the Core membership on Seamless Access developments — we have sent out emails to the listserv
- Manage details of the relationship with Seamless Access. Recommend an official representative to the Seamless Access Governance Committee — this year’s representative, Hong Ma, attends meetings regularly
What will your group be working on for the next 6 months?
- The aforementioned webinar series will offer scaffolding instruction on authentication technology and are based on sessions presented at ALA, Core Forum, and upcoming at ER&L.
- Hong Ma, Don Hamparian, and Justine Withers are designing a four-hour workshop on authentication fundamentals. We will deliver it in person at ER&L 2024 and then make it available as OER.
- We will continue to recruit members of the testing pool and begin collecting information about the effects of browser changes on authentication methods.
Meets Core’s strategic goals for Membership and Value to Members
How did your work contribute to diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, or belonging within Core or the library profession? What areas of improvement do you see for your committee or Core in these areas?
The ALA 2023 session directly supported Information Policy by educating librarians on the relationship between authentication technology and privacy concerns. Members of vulnerable communities are especially affected and concerned by threats to privacy and we can support those communities by safeguarding their privacy.
In general, supporting easier remote access to electronic resources creates a more inclusive research experience. Our work with Marshall Breeding means that more libraries will be represented in our information about the authentication technology landscape.
Further, we have broadened the scope of this committee (pending approval by the Board) to include all types of authentication to better represent ALA membership.
Is there anything Core could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
Rachel Fleming has been AMAZING as our board liaison: always willing to help and answer questions.
Please provide suggestions for future education topics, initiatives, publications, resources, or other activities that could be developed based on your group’s work.
We are already working with the Programming Committee on this.
Submitted by Justine Withers on 12/21/2023
Federated Authentication Committee – May 2023 Report
The group met 4-6 times this quarter.
Recent Activities
First Activity
We have worked on plans for our panel discussion at ALA Annual and discussed a committee member's successful proposal for a federated authentication session at Core Forum. I have updated the committee on news from Seamless Access governance meetings. We have discussed and reported out issues related to changes in browser behavior (both current and coming later this year), and the potential impacts of those changes on authentication for library resources.
Meets Core’s strategic goals for Membership and Value to Members
What will your group be working on for the next 6 months?
We will continue to attend Seamless Access governance and report out developments as appropriate. We will work on upcoming presentations, and will begin to explore educational opportunities as described in our charge.
Submitted by Thomas Dowling on 05/26/2023