Chapter 4. Improving Authentication and Authorization: SeamlessAccess and GetFTR Introduction

Abstract

IP authentication and SAML federated access are time-honored ways to provide access to library resources. Can we improve on them? SeamlessAccess, launched in 2016, and GetFTR, launched in 2019, two recent publisher-backed options (though other stakeholders such as librarians and researchers are included as well) targeted at two different issues about delivery, aim to fundamentally improve the authentication and authorization process for users. Chapter 4 of Library Technology Reports (vol. 58, no. 6), “Improving Authentication and Authorization Methods: SeamlessAccess and GetFTR,” will review the progress of these two initiatives thus far.