Using Shibboleth to share resources across continents:

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Using Shibboleth to share resources across
continents

• DART Project
• Masha Garibyan, LSE Library, PERSEUS Project

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Overview

• LSE Library projects
• Shibboleth overview (if required)
• PERSEUS Project
• DART Project
• PERSEUS/DART connection
• Demo
• Concluding thoughts

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London School of Economics (LSE) Library
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London School of Economics (LSE) Library

• Also known as the British Library of Political
  and Economic Science
• The largest library in the world devoted
  exclusively to the social sciences

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LSE Library projects

• Active participation in cutting edge information
  technology developments through internally and
  externally-funded projects (e.g. JISC)
• A track record of successful projects in access
  management (and other areas)
• LSE was the first institution in the UK to pilot
  the Shibboleth technology

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Shibboleth overview 1

• An Internet technology from Internet2 (US) that
  enables secure access to restricted electronic
  resources
• An open source implementation of the OASIS SAML
  (Security Assertion Markup Language)
• Access is based on the users role within the
  institution, rather than the users identity
• using role-based attributes (details about the
  user that help establish whether the user should
  be given access)

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Shibboleth overview 2

• Provides a secure channel for transporting role
  attributes between the Identity Provider site
  (e.g. LSE) and Service Provider site (e.g. JSTOR)
  to establish whether the user should have access
  to the requested information
• Some of the advantages
• Most operations are invisible to the user
• Users can control which role attributes are
  released to the Service Provider
• Users can access resources from different sources
  using one username/password

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PERSEUS Project

• Portal-enabled Resources via Shibbolized End-user
  Security (PERSEUS) Project
• Follows-on from the JISC SECURe Project at LSE
• Part of the JISC Core Middleware Technology
  Development Programme
• supporting JISC investment in Shibboleth
• PERSEUS (July 2004 - June 2006) aims to
• provide Shibboleth-based access management to LSE
  information resources via the developing LSE
  portal
• use LSE as a testbed for Shibboleth
• while being actively involved in other
  initiatives and projects, such as the DART Project

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DART Project

• Digital Anthropology Resources for Teaching
  (DART) Project
• a collaboration between LSE and Columbia
  University, New York
• jointly funded by JISC and the US National
  Science Foundation (Feb 2003 Jan 2008)
• DART aims to
• develop digital teaching resources for
  undergraduate anthropology
• investigate opportunities for flexible
  resource-sharing between HE institutions

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DART Project

• Last year LSE and Columbia took a decision to
  share a secure undergraduate Anthropology
  resource developed by Columbia

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PERSEUS / DART connection

• The PERSEUS Team at LSE and Columbia University
  have considerable experience in using Shibboleth
• So, Shibboleth was chosen to be the underlying
  technology to support the resource sharing
• By Xmas 2004 everything was ready

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So, how does it work?

• Demo

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(No Transcript)
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In real life it looks like this

• An LSE user uses one of these routes to access
  the resource
• WebCT (LSE VLE)
• Columbia University website

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Screenshot 1 (WAYF)
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Screenshot 2 (login)
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Screenshot 3 (request processing)
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And if all is well, access is granted
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DART is the first example of Shibboleth-based
resource-sharing across continents
But so what?
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Concluding thoughts

• The use of Shibboleths helped LSE and Columbia
  share resources without the need for multiple
  passwords and resource duplication, while
  protecting Columbias IPR
• DART model may not apply to sharing commercial
  resources due to licensing restrictions, but this
  is not Shibboleths fault!
• DART Project (with help from PERSEUS) has
  provided a valuable example of how Shibboleth can
  be used to facilitate international
  resource-sharing, which is both flexible and
  secure
• Moving one step closer to the Shibboleth world
  domination?

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References

• www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?nameproject_tla
• www.columbia.edu/dlc/dart/
• http//www.lse.ac.uk/collections/pressAndInformati
  onOffice/newsAndEvents/archives/2005/Shibboleh_Lib
  raryPR.htm
• http//shibboleth.internet2.edu/

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Contact details

• Email M.Garibyan_at_lse.ac.uk
• Tel [phone]
• www.angel.ac.uk/PERSEUS
• Any questions?