Digital Anthropology Resources for Teaching

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Digital Anthropology Resources for Teaching

• Using Shibboleth to achieve secure access to
  shared resources across continents
• Masha Garibyan, LSE Library

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Overview

• LSE Library projects
• PERSEUS Project
• DART Project
• Overview of Shibboleth
• PERSEUS/DART connection
• Demo
• Conclusions

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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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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
  information resources via an institutional portal
• use LSE as a test bed 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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Shibboleth overview

• 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
• Uses authentication devolved to the user's home
  organisation and role-based attributes

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Shibboleth overview 2

• Advantages
• Secure access
• Most operations are invisible to the user
• Users can control which role attributes are
  released to the Resource Provider
• Users can access restricted resources from
  different sources using the username/password
  given by the home institution
• while protecting institutions Intellectual
  Property

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PERSEUS/ DART connection

• PERSEUS Team at LSE has considerable experience
  in using Shibboleth to facilitate
  Shibboleth-based resource-sharing between the LSE
  and Columbia University
• And so does Columbia University

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So, how does it work?

• Real-life scenario
• Columbia University has developed a digital
  resource in Anthropology which it is sharing with
  LSE
• Demo

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In real life it looks like this

• The user uses one of these routes to access the
  resource
• http//webct.lse.ac.uk (LSE VLE)
• https//dart.columbia.edu/secure/gandhi-timeline/s
  ect_5 (direct link to the Resource Providers
  site)

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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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Conclusions

• The use of Shibboleths helped LSE and Columbia
  share resources without the need for multiple
  passwords and resource duplication, while
  protecting Columbias IPR
• DART Project (with the 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

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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?