ANN ARBOR, Mich., February 9, 2009 - ProQuest is pleased to announce that all products hosted on the ProQuest® platform(from ABI/INFORM, Research Library and ProQuest Central to historical and current newspapers, ProQuest Medical Library and Entrepreneurship) are now Shibboleth® compliant, affirming ProQuest’s commitment to working with emerging library standards. The Shibboleth® System (a trademark of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development) is an increasingly popular standards-based, open source software package for web single sign-on allowing library sites to make informed authorization decisions for individual access of protected online resources.

ProQuest’s Shibboleth® release provides support for the following federations; the United States (InCommon), Canada (The Canadian Access Federation), United Kingdom (The UK Access Management Federation for Education and Research) and Germany (DFN-AAI).  Other federations will be supported at a later date.

‘We embrace the new Shibboleth technology in easing access to resources to make a more streamlined experience for the user as well as assisting information professionals in the complex area of identity management’ said Mary Sauer-Games, Vice President, Higher Education Publishing, ProQuest. ‘We are pleased to support these innovative national federations and look forward to supporting even more federations in this enterprise in the future.’

Shibboleth® overcomes the complexity of managing passwords, as well as the challenges associated with authentication technologies (such as IP authentication and Athens), enabling single sign-on and federated administration of access to restricted resources.  The user’s site and the target site exchange information based on attributes (for example a student in a particular course, or a particular faculty member).  This approach allows for more active privacy management than relying solely on the unique identity of the user, significantly reducing the workload for information professionals in managing user identities, and providing a more uniform experience for the user.  The compliance of the ProQuest® platform products is a landmark in the development of Shibboleth® compliance.

 

About ProQuest
ProQuest creates specialized information resources and technologies that propel successful research, discovery, and lifelong learning. A global leader in serving libraries of all types, ProQuest offers the expertise of such respected brands as Chadwyck-Healey™, UMI®, SIRS®, and eLibrary®. With Serials Solutions®, Ulrich's™, RefWorks®, COS™, Dialog® and now Bowker® part of the ProQuest brand family, the company supports the breadth of the information community with innovative discovery solutions that power the business of books and the best in research experience.

More than a content provider or aggregator, ProQuest is an information partner, creating indispensable research solutions that connect people and information. Through innovative, user-centered discovery technology, ProQuest offers billions of pages of global content that includes historical newspapers, dissertations, and uniquely relevant resources for researchers of any age and sophistication—including content not likely to be digitized by others. Inspired by its customers and their end users, ProQuest is working toward a future that blends information accessibility with community to further enhance learning and encourage lifelong enrichment.

For more information, visit www.proquest.com or the ProQuest parent company website, www.cig.com.