It is with great pleasure that we can report the next milestone in the development of the SWITCH edu-ID.
As you know, most of the Swiss university libraries launched the joint library platform Swisscovery in December last year. All university members can log in to Swisscovery exclusively with edu-ID.
However, many libraries have a service mandate not only for universities but also for private users. This means that authorisation via edu-ID had to be extended so that users who are not enrolled at a university can also use library resources.
SWITCH together with SLSP, the ZHB Lucerne and the ZB Zurich have now successfully completed the next step in this direction. Registered users of the ZB and ZHB now have access to the following digital content:
- Filmfriend – a streaming service for culturally valuable films
- Overdrive – for e-books and audio books
- Onleihe – for e-books, digital newspapers and magazines, audio books and online courses
- Pressreader – online access to newspapers and magazines
Hint: If you want to use these services as a private user, you have to register at the ZB or ZHB.
For the development of the edu-ID this step is of great importance. On the one hand, with this sucessful accomplishment SWITCH, SLSP and the involved libraries have deepened their partnership. Furthermore, users who leave the university now have an additional important reason to continue using their edu-ID. Or the other way round, if they enrol at a university, this is even easier because they already use an edu-ID from the library. As a side effect, the overall footprint of edu-ID increases.
This project shows once again that we made the right strategic decision when we introduced the new OpenID Connect protocol in the spring of this year. Three of the four resources mentioned above are connected via OpenID Connect and one via SAML.
Libraries who are interested in using the same service are kindly requested to contact SLSP.
Many thanks to all involved parties who made this project possible!