The second library pilot has focused in setting up and IDP/SP proxy for providing Library Consortia, dealing with contracts with editors often at a collective, national scale, with a tool capable of answering their needs.
The main goal of this pilot has been to showcase the benefits for a library consortium, namely HEAL-Link, to join a federation as an IdP/SP proxy. These benefits include:
allowing publisher contracts to be managed centrally by the consortium
easier to implement and manage than establishing trust relationships among IdPs and SPs (either bilateral or through a federation)
the consortium will retain control on the branding and policies
disconnecting the establishment of technical trust between the IdP and SP entities from the application of policies relating to contracts (publisher subscriptions etc.)
more precise and easier to produce statistics
Integrate with the other library pilot activities in order to investigate the possibilities in the proxy model to address library requirements relating to the use of:
guest identities
mixed federated and IP-based access
Overall, the following figure shows the architectural components provided by this pilot, with respect to the blueprint architecture as defined by AARC JRA1:
Figure 7: Architectural components implemented by Library pilot n.2 (IDP/SP proxy for Consortia)