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With increasing demands from library users to access subscription databases from off site, libraries are searching for and creating ways to authenticate off-site users. While many libraries have successfully managed to set up their own solution via the use of IP addresses, user IDs and passwords, digital certificates, and/or proxy servers, many of these solutions lack in important capabilities such as the ability to collect quality statistics and the control of creating and managing a multitude of varying users. Obvia Corporation, a small but expanding New York-based company, offers remote data access (RDA) through a server software system allowing for an easy, controllable, cost-effective management solution to the remote access problem. Using Obvia's RDA service, librarians can focus on administrative and professional decisions and spend more time guiding their users to the appropriate information sources rather than on the mechanical connection that happens between the two.
Expensive database subscriptions eat up a large portion of your library's budget. You are reassured that the faculty and students are reaping the benefits of your investment when you begin to hear, "Can I access these databases from home?"
As summertime vacations approach, you begin to hear, "Can I access these databases from anywhere?" The demand for off-campus access to your library's resources will continue to grow as the number of homes connected to the Internet increases. Long-distance learning is becoming more and more popular, and these programs are becoming more technically advanced. Patrons are demanding library service beyond the four walls of the library, and librarians have to respond to these demands to ensure the future success of their libraries. Librarians who do not provide off-site access to eligible patrons are simply not getting the full benefits of their dollar investment in the licensing costs for these resources.
So how do we go about creating off-site access for eligible users to these many databases? How can we be sure that only those with access rights will be able to connect to these databases? How can we allow different classes of users dif ferent access rights to accommodate the college body (fulltime and adjunct faculty, full-time and part-time students, alumnae, etc.)? Can statistics be collected that show which databases are being used? Can user records be easily...