access to ARL Dir of Electr Jrnls / FMPro db

[lydia]

1. Are other people working on the problem of providing scripted
   access to the new version of ARL's Directory of Electronic
   Journals?

2. Does anyone have experience with scripted login to (or security
   issues for) FMPro 4.0 databases on the web?

It appears that ARL has mounted a new FMPro database for which it
requires subscription, but that the only means of access to this
database is a single username+password distributed to all valid
users. Unless it's possible to script the connection (this looks like
basic auth, which is unscriptable except via proxy so far as i know),
the only way to get our users in is to distribute the username and
password. This solution can't even pretend to be secure.

I'm hoping that the FMPro community can tell me more about other
security options (no news yet). Meanwhile, if ARL is now offering a
product that its user community can't secure, perhaps we should
register a cumulative objection. 

Any fellow sufferers in web4lib land? 

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
 Lydia Ievins, Systems Librarian          Office for Information Systems
 phone 617/495-3724; fax 617/495-0491     Harvard University Library
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~