Non-IP Based Institutional Subscriptions?

[Evan Owens <eowens@press.uchicago.edu>]

What means have you worked out with publishers of online journals for
granting your patrons access to materials when IP-based access is not
workable? We have a number of institutional customers who subscribe to our
online journals but who cannot provide us with IP addresses used
exclusively by the subscribing institution. (E.g., a library whose
internet connections are passed through a proxy server that also handles
internet traffic for computers not part of the subscribing library or
campus, or an institution whose IP addresses are randomly assigned from a
pool owned by a commercial internet service provider.)

When we tell these customers that we can't register their IP addresses,
they ask for a username and password instead, but this seems to be very
insecure and easily susceptible to abuse.

Have you worked out any alternatives to IP-based or
username-password-based access to online subscriptions that have worked
well for you and the vendor?

Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions.

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Evan Owens
Information Technology Manager, The University of Chicago Press
eowens@press.uchicago.edu
1427 East 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637-2954
(773) 753 3375  Fax: (773) 753 3383
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