Events

ARLG conference is the biennial conference organised by Academic & Research Libraries Group a group of CILIP. It covers all aspects of academic & research librarianship & has been a staple fixture on the calendars of librarians working in Higher & further education for many years.

Blake Anderson, UK Account Executive, and Vee Rogachava, UX Designer, are heading to ARLG to exhibit and speak. Be sure to attend Vee’s presentation:

‘How to get quality insight about users’ needs for free. Research methods for librarians.’

Research doesn’t have to be a costly timely exercise. Embracing quick and easy research methods will help library teams get valuable insight in to users’ behaviour.

This interactive session will provide attendees with the toolkit they need to carry out research to understand their users’ needs, and look at how the data collected can be used. Vee will provide examples and share learnings from her experience doing guerrilla research in libraries in the UK and the USA.

Venue: Teesside University, Darlington Campus, UK

Alongside Angela Dresselhaus, Head of Electronic Resources, Eastern Carolina University and Shoko Tokoro, Electronic and Continuing Resources Librarian, UNC Charlotte, our technical solutions lead Kristina Symes will be discussing authentication methods for digital resources.

The Authentication Landscape

• Friday 7 June 2019
• 10:45am – 11:45am

In the RA21 era, there is no need to sacrifice features for convenience. This session will dig into the tech behind authentication methods for digital resources. Grasp the history, current state and other initiatives that are occurring in this space.

This year we are a bronze sponsor of UXLibsV and our UX designer, Vee Rogacheva is attending. Catch Vee’s presentation to learn more about UX in the world of OpenAthens.

Venue: Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom

Booth #3418 is where you’ll find the OpenAthens team! Drop by to say hello and discover how our single sign-on technology saves organisations time, money and increases eResource engagement.

Publishers can book a meeting with our service relationship manager, Phil Leahy, ahead of the conference to discuss how to comply with new RA21 recommended practices for simple, seamless access to online content.

‘How user centered design is transforming GALILEO’s library experience’

• Sunday 23 June
• 10.30am – 11.30am

Vee Rogacheva, UX designer, OpenAthens
Russell Palmer, Assistant Director, GALILEO

This interactive talk will explore how the GALILEO consortium has initiated a user-centered design (UCD) methodology for their OpenAthens authentication project, covering a community of more than 2,000 institutions, and how it will transform the experience for their patrons.

This session will:

• Describe some of the barriers patrons experience when discovering and accessing subscribed content and the specific challenges GALILEO face.
• Explain the design process, what UCD is and what frameworks can be used for library projects.
• Outline how GALILEO are approaching their UCD and the research methods they’ve used including user interviews, focus groups and collaboration workshops.
• Discuss the results of the GALILEO user research, highlighting trends which have an impact on user behaviour

Venue: 801 Mt. Vernon Place NW, Washington, DC 20001, United States

CoLRiC’s 2019 Conference acknowledges and celebrates exemplary practice and innovation across the FE and Sixth Form College sector.

This year, we’re sponsoring the conference, as well as exhibiting! Stacey Pattie, our Implementation Specialist, will be attending! Visit the stand to say hi, and discuss your current identity management needs.

Heading to this event?
Join our presentation!

Kristina Symes, OpenAthens’ Technical Solutions Lead, will be sharing insights from her recent research into authentication methods for digital resources. Don’t miss out!

• 2pm BST
• The King’s Fund, 11 Cavendish Square, London, W1G 0AN

The CILIP Conference is one of the biggest events in the calendar for UK library and information professionals. If you’re attending, come and say hi to James and Blake at stand #13.

Find out how OpenAthens ensures access and authentication to your subscribed digital eResources is managed simply, securely and effectively while providing insight and data that supports the changing information needs of the organisation.

Join the OpenAthens team in London for an informal Meetup to connect, collaborate and share your experiences and ideas for improving user access to online content.

You’re welcome to raise any topics you’re interested in. We thought we might kick off with usage stats and analytics, designing platforms around user journeys and the place of authentication in the context of the publishing lifecycle.

Of interest to product managers, UX/UI designers, sales and marketing roles working in online publishing.

Coffee and cake provided.

Venue: Waterstones, 19-20 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 1BJ

Kristina Symes, technical solutions lead here at OpenAthens and author of ‘Access to Online Resources – A Guide for the Modern Librarian’ shared insights from her recent research into authentication methods for digital resources in ‘OpenAthens: The Authentication Landscape’.

This year at UKSG we ran an OpenAthens roundtable, ‘Understand the researcher journey to increase engagement’. Our UX designer Vee Rogacheva, and International sales manager Kieran Prince discussed the benefits of federated single sign-on and recent research into students’ online behavior.

Jon Bentley, OpenAthens Commercial Director joined US-based publishers to discuss their experiences and ideas for improving access to online content. Topics discussed were:

• How you track usage and use analytics to inform decision making
• How you design platforms around user journey
• Where you see authentication to content in the context of the publishing lifecycle

The 2019 conference theme ‘User-centred by design’ reflects
our collective commitment to developing a secure, simple and seamless
user journey to content.

Topics ranged from user experience and user consent and privacy, to piracy and practical use of identity and access management.

Guest speakers included:

• Dan Ramsden, creative director for user experience architecture, BBC
• Todd Carpenter, executive director, National Information Standards Organization
• Russell Palmer, assistant director for support services, GALILEO

London Book Fair is a great chance for our International Sales Manager, Kieran Prince, to meet with content providers.

The team had a fantastic trip to Texas. Exhibiting on the 4th and 5th March, and our UX Dsign presenting ‘GALILEO: Implementing OpenAthens for a Large and Diverse Consortium’. Alongside Russell Palmer & Ken Henslee (GALILEO) and Andrew Nagy (EBSCO), Vee discussed the collaboration.

Rob and Michelle enjoyed four fantastic days in Sydney. We exhibited at ALIA Information Online and presented ‘Librarians’ experiences in providing access to digital content’. The presentation discussed the key findings of our 2018 survey undertaken to find out librarians’ experiences of providing access to digital content.

We had some fantastic conversations at ALA Midwinter Conference & Exhibition this year.

Rob, James and Kieran from the OpenAthens attended the event which is a great mixture of in-depth learning, educational sessions, thought-provoking speakers, new publications, technologies and services from expert organizations in the exhibits.

Our new infuser water bottles went down a treat on our exhibition stand!

Our UX designer, Vee Rogacheva, shared how to increase engagement with your online content and making your services stand out by giving researchers the ‘Google’ experience by following our top tips for a simpler, more standardised UX-designed interface. In so doing, expect to see an increase in access to and engagement with your online content.

This year we were sponsoring the event. UKSG E-Resources For Further Education brings together learning resources and library managers to share best practice and innovation in the management, delivery and support e-resources in further education.

We were a sponsor of CILIP’s Employers Forum – Rob, our head of sales, and Blake, our account manager had a great day. The day brought together employers, managers and leaders from across the information, knowledge and library profession to discuss the future skills of our sector.

This year we attended the Vendor Showcase on Tuesday 6 November and spoke on Wednesday and Thursday. Our sessions were:

Why IP-based access is failing end users: How to give patrons a simple, seamless user experience in collaboration with InCommon.

One login, one time; the way to easy and unlimited access in collaboration with GALILEO, NHTI and EBSCO.

Wayfinder Showcase  -The showcase demonstrated how Wayfinder reduces the steps patrons need to take to access scholarly content online, reducing the barriers they previously faced and giving them an easier, secure and seamless journey to content.

Jon Bentley, our Commercial Director, spoke at Internet Librarian this year on Tuesday 16th October. The sessions, ‘Transforming Library Experiences With User-Centered Design’ and ‘Pharma Research: Insights & Challenges’ provided lots of information as to what’s happening within the world or OpenAthens at the moment.

This year was the world’s largest trade fair, the Frankfurt Book Fair, 70th birthday.

Our team were in the International Library Centre, discussing federated our access management solution and how this can support your business aspirations.

‘Wayfinder – How to simplify access to your online content’
Phil Leahy, OpenAthens Service Relationship Manager, demonstrated the exciting new Wayfinder service on 10 October.

This conference provides access to leading, expert speakers and pioneering case studies. This year, our Agile Team Lead, Luke Taylor held an open forum, ‘The Google-generation’s access to academic content’. Lots of conversation around students’ expectations when it comes to accessing content.

We joined other ALPSP members at their annual conference this September.

Our International Sales Manager, Kieran Prince, met service providers and discussed how federated access management can support a wide range of scholarly publishers including those with Open Access or hybrid platforms.

This free one-day workshop facilitated discussion around the future of access to scholarly content. There was lots of shared learning around the challenges of and solutions to identity and access management with peers.

Our APAC Sales Manager, Dune, attended IFLA this year, alongside EBSCO. A great lunch and learn was held with lots of conversations around identity management.

OpenAthens and EBSCO held a lunch to discuss authentication in the modern environment and why we need to move away from IP recognition as an access mechanism. There were lots of discussions around why authentication has become an extremely important issue as libraries increase their digital content.

This event was the first European Association for Health Information and Libraries (EAHIL) Conference! Adam and Blake from the OpenAthens team had a great time in Cardiff, exhibiting and attending the conference sessions.

This year we had James and Blake manning our exhibition stand. They had two very busy, enjoyable days catching up with Librarians and other exhibitors, chatting about the latest developments happening in OpenAthens.

Kris, Kieran and Rob had a great time in New Orleans, with lots of exciting conversations and meetings around identity and access management.

‘How can user centred design transform the library experience?’

Our UX Designer, Vee Rogacheva, spoke about her recent UX research she has carried out in UK and US academic libraries.

The conference featured awards ceremonies/presentations and a choice of breakout sessions/workshops on a range of topics including; the transition from FE to HE and the importance of learning resource centres and library services in FE.

Jon Bentley, OpenAthens Commercial Director, took part in the RA21 focused discussion.

Jon presented: ‘Has federated single sign-on failed the end user?’

This event brought together the information community to discuss the means by which the community may be able to simplify the user experience while still preserving necessary privacy and security protections for all stakeholders.

Phil Leahy, OpenAthens Service Provider Relationship Manager, spoke in the Foundational Technologies Panel on ‘What can SAML / Shibboleth do for your institution?’.

MLA draws more than 2,400 participants including medical librarians and other health information professionals, international attendees, and exhibitors.

The Powers of Single Sign-On and the Benefits to All
Robert Scaysbrook spoke alongside EBSCO & Sentara Health about the benefits of single sign-on to clinical resources.

Top questions medical libraries ask OpenAthens
Kristina Botyriute discussed how different technologies work together to increase patron satisfaction.

The London Book Fair hosts over 2,000 exhibitors from the publishing industry in 56 countries, attracting around 25,000 visitors from 118 countries.

Jane and Kieran from the OpenAthens team had lots of exciting conversations with a wide variety of publishers over the two days.

The UKSG Annual Conference attracts almost 1,000 delegates from across the global knowledge community, including librarians, publishers, and intermediaries.

Our presentation on ‘User-focused authentication and resource access fit for the 21st Century’, had a great turn out on both days. Jon Bentley discussed the integral role that Federated Access plays in the success of RA21.

Our event, at the British Library was a chance for anyone working in the educational and research, healthcare, medical and pharmaceutical, corporate and publishing industries with an interest in identity and access management for access to digital content, to attend sessions where topics ranged from user-centred design and measuring user access and engagement to data protection, security and piracy.

View the audio recordings, slides and photos.

The goal of the ER&L Conference is to bring together information professionals from libraries and related industries.

Our session, ‘Moving Beyond IP Authentication: The New Frontier in Single Sign-On’, with EBSCO and Laredo Community College, discussed how libraries can move beyond IP authentication to one that is more secure, personalized and easy to setup and manage.

ALA Midwinter is a great mixture of in-depth learning, educational sessions, thought-provoking speakers, new publications, technologies and services from expert organizations in the exhibits.

We had some great conversations around Identity and Access Management. Our new travel coffee cups went down a treat on our exhibition stand!

American Association of School Librarians, which is the only National Conference & Exhibition, held every two years, is the leading professional development event for school library professionals.

Rob and Kieran from the OpenAthens team attended and had some great Identity and Access Management discussions with delegates of the event.

This October some of the OpenAthens team headed to the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Our launch presentation of OpenAthens Cloud was great, hosted by our Service Relationship Manager, Phil Leahy. The team also had the chance to meet with our customers and browse the exhibition.

Our customer conference bought together information professionals and technical experts from across the spectrum of healthcare, academia, corporates and publishing under the theme of Creating Connections to discuss the key challenges and opportunities facing organisations in the context of Identity and Access Management (IAM).