University LibGuides Administration & Style: Authentication & Indexing

There are times we need to lock down certain parts of LibGuides to keep a population from accessing content.  The locked out population may be the general public, students, or faculty.  This is an overview of how to access work, what is currently possible, and what is coming in the future.

If you have questions about LibGuide access or need to limit access to LibGuide content, please contact Lisa Raymond.

Definitions:

access: the ability to see and interact with content

authentication: the process by which LibGuides determines a user has permission to access content

permission: the settings that determine to which content a user has access, and what kind of access that is e.g., read, edit, delete, etc.

front-end: what the users see when they go to a guide

back-end: the interface LibGuide account holders use to create and edit guides

Access and permissions work together to manage what a user can see, edit, create or delete.  Authentication verifies a users access and permissions.

 

Group Types

Group types control group-level user access.  Each group is assigned a type. The types can be changed at any time through the group settings.  The group type controls user access for all guides within the group.

Public

• indexed by search engines

• accessible to anyone via URL or through a web search

Restricted:

• indexed by search engines

• access controlled through a password or IP restriction

Internal:

• not indexed by search engines

• to access the user must have a LibGuides account AND

• must have permission to the content

Currently there are two ways to limit access to LibGuide content: passwords and IP restrictions.

A password can be applied to a group or a guide.  A user must enter the correct password to access the front-end content of a guide.  The password does not limit access to the guide's backend.  Password use should be limited, as it is challenging to share passwords with a large group of users or to inform users when the password is updated.

IP restrictions limit access to front-end content based on the user's IP address.  IP restrictions do not limit access to the guide's back-end. Currently, IP restriction is the preferred way to control access.

Currently, we use the Library's EZ Proxy server to limit access via IP.  Here's a basic breakdown of how this works.

1. We tell LibGuides to limit access to content to users with a specific IP range.

2. When a user tries to access content, LibGuides directs them to the EZ Proxy log on page.

3. The user enters their credentials.

4. EZ Proxy verifies that their credentials are correct AND

5. Tells LibGuides the user's IP address is within the indicated range.

6. LibGuides displays the content to the user.

There are some significant limitations to IP restriction at this time.

 

Domain access

The EZ Proxy server can control access to an entire domain only, not to directories.  This means it can control access to all or none of academicguides.waldenu.edu. We cannot limit access to academicguides.waldenu.edu/library but let anyone access academicguides.waldenu.edu/sst. It is all or nothing.

What this means is that right now the entire faculty-facing LibGuides domain is IP restricted, and none of the student-facing LibGuides domain is IP restricted.

 

Impact of IP restriction through the proxy server

• The proxy server automatically adds the proxied URL to any links to a proxied domain, whether the link was built with the proxied URL or not, both within LibGuides and outside of it. For example:

http://walden.libguides.com/cfe will automatically become http://walden.libguides.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/cfe

This applies to rich text links as well as link assets.

This means we don't have to worry about bookmarks or remembering to add the proxy URL every time we link to content.

• Proxy URLs will not be added to non-proxied domains such as google.com or waldenu.edu

• The proxy remembers the log on information for the day or until the browser cache is cleared. If someone logs into a LibGuide through the proxy server, they will not have to log in to any other proxied resource that day, including the Library databases.

 

There are three settings that control if content is indexed and shows up in search engines.

Note:

• Springshare indexes all public guides for internal searching regardless of any other settings.

• Private guides are never indexed, including Springshare indexing

 

System Settings: Search Options

Search Engine Indexing: enabled/disabled

• controls indexing by search engines such as Google, Bing, etc.

• applies to all Public groups in the system

• overrides all other settings.  If system search engine indexing is disabled, guides will not be indexed regardless of other settings (except by Springshare).

 

Group Setting: Group Type

Public: indexed by search engines such as Google, Bing, etc. unless system search engine index is disabled

Internal: not indexed by search engines

Restricted: indexed by search engines unless system search engine index is disabled (but guides aren't accessible to general public)

 

Guide Setting: 

Public: indexed by search engines such as Google, Bing, etc. unless system search engine index is disabled

Private: not indexed by search engines