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<p class=MsoBodyText><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>NISO
Publishes Recommended Practice on Single Sign-on Authentication</span></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><br>
</span></b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Identifies
Needed Improvements for Users Authenticating to Licensed Electronic Resources<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class=MsoBodyText><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoBodyText><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Baltimore,
MD, November 7, 2011 – The National Information Standards Organization
(NISO) announces the publication of a new Recommended Practice, <i>ESPReSSO:
Establishing Suggested Practices Regarding Single Sign-On</i> (NISO
RP-11-2011), that identifies practical solutions for improving the use of
single sign-on authentication technologies to ensure a seamless experience for
the user. This recommended practice is the result of the NISO Chair's
Initiative—a project of the chair of NISO's Board of Directors, focusing
on a specific issue that would benefit from study and the development of a
recommended practice or standard. Oliver Pesch, Chief Strategist for E-Resource
Access and Management Services at EBSCO Information Services and the 2008-2009
Chair of NISO’s Board of Directors, chose the issue of standardizing
seamless, item-level linking through single sign-on (SSO) authentication
technologies in a networked information environment, which resulted in the
formation of the ESPReSSO Working Group.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoBodyText><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Currently
a hybrid environment of authentication practices exists, including older
methods of userid/password, IP authentication, and/or proxy servers along with
newer federated authentication protocols such as Athens and Shibboleth. The
ESPReSSO recommended practice identifies changes that can be made immediately
to improve the authentication experience for the user, even in a hybrid
situation, while encouraging both publishers/service providers and libraries to
transition to the newer Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)-based
authentication, such as Shibboleth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoBodyText><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>"With
the growing use of mobile devices and remote access, the older authentication
methods are not manageable for either the content provider or the
library," explains Steve Carmody, IT Architect, Computing and Information
Services, at Brown University and co-chair of the NISO ESPReSSO Working Group.
"The ESPReSSO recommendations will help bridge the transition to more
robust authentication methods that better match the needs of today's users and
eliminate the need for multiple identities."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoBodyText><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>"The
growing use of web discovery services over the older federated search method
have only increased the need for single sign-on authentication and consistency
of access and context for the user,” states Harry Kaplanian, Director of
Technology, Serials Solutions, Inc., and co-chair of the NISO ESPReSSO Working
Group. “With a discovery service portal, users are often unaware that
they will ultimately be accessing resources across a broad spectrum of
platforms and providers, and the multiple back-end logins that occur can be
both confusing and frustrating. In addition to addressing this situation, the
ESPReSSO recommendations also identify methods that can be used to maintain
users’ privacy while still offering them advanced functionality, such as
saving searches between sessions."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoBodyText><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>"The
ESPReSSO Working Group has produced a very forward-looking document,”
states Todd Carpenter, Managing Director of NISO. “It provides
recommendations that can be implemented immediately in today’s hybrid
environment and will also transition the community towards the preferred single
sign-on methodology."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoBodyText><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>The
ESPReSSO Recommended Practice is available for free download from the NISO
website at: <a href="http://www.niso.org/publications/rp">www.niso.org/publications/rp</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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