Intergrating library resources with Blackboard

[Frank, Ilene]

Integrating library resources with Blackboard: A Step in the Right Direction

The University of South Florida (USF) is using Blackboard for its portal.
The goal of the portal is single sign-on to all electronic information.  The
portal provides access to electronic course space for every course offered
at USF with automatic registration of enrolled students, access to official
University email, real-time information for available seats in the open use
computer labs, etc.  To further increase functionality, our Academic
Computing Department has made it possible for users to log on to all of the
Virtual Library resources through the portal.  

When users log on to the portal (myUSF), they can select a tab for the "USF
Libraries".  From there, users can select the Virtual Library, the webpages
for individual USF libraries, along with a choice to "ask-a-librarian".  By
selecting the Virtual Library, users can access the licensed resources
without additional authentication.  Alicia Balsera, Assistant Director for
USF Academic Computing, reports, "When users log on, an invisible token is
granted. Each link to a USF Libary is passed through an EZProxy server, and
all subsequent links are rewritten to pass through the same proxy server,
making all requests appear to come from a USF IP address."  

Users testing out this new authentication method have been very pleased! So
far the only known problem is with - (you guessed it) -  AOL users. Academic
Computing is still looking to see if there is a solution for AOL users.  

Also, note that this solution does not provide remote user authentication
from within the Blackboard course shells. This only works at the portal
level, but it is a step in the right direction! 

The USF Libraries supports its own EZProxy authentication for remote users
and will continue to do so.   

More about the USF portal project, myUSF:
http://www.acomp.usf.edu/portal.html

Sincerely,
Ilene Frank, ifrank at lib.usf.edu
Reference Department
Tampa Campus Library, LIB 122
University of South Florida
Tampa, FL 33620-5400
(813)974-2483
http://www.lib.usf.edu/~ifrank/