[Web4lib] Ideas for home grown db authentification pages

[Mary Wilkes Towner]

Hi! I’m crossposting to PubLib& Web4Lib, so forgive any duplication. I 
appreciate the wisdom of both audiences.

Have you set up your own authentification schemes for database access on 
your web pages?
I’d like to visit your websites to get ideas.

For a variety of reasons, my library has decided to drop our federated 
search engine vendor and create our own home-grown database access page.

We’re pretty much beginners in this area and I sure would appreciate 
suggestions or mentoring. No one currently on staff has worked with 
authentication except me, and I was using our previous vendor’s template.

We have access via our local library consortium to Dynix RPA to 
authenticate our borrowers, but we’re not sure how we keep patrons from 
bookmarking an authenticated page and going there directly in the 
future. We’re also interested in having patrons only authenticate once, 
not each time they switch to another database. I know our vendors will 
agree to a referral URL from out authentication page once we have it secure.

What steps or issues are we missing here?

Also, is this something we can reasonably do or is it more appropriate 
to find an outside consultant with programming experience to help?

Our goal is to create an attractive, useful page where the patron 
doesn’t have to authenticate each time he enters a database.

Thanks so much!

marywt

-- 
Mary Wilkes Towner
Adult Services Librarian
The Urbana Free Library
210 W. Green St.
Urbana, IL 61801
(217) 367-4405 mtowner at tufl.info

Libri utendi. Omni libro lector. Omni lectori liber.
Otium lectoris servandum. Floreat biblioteca.
(Latin Ranganathan)