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Use of HAN in research and teaching

HAN as management software for online-based resources such as e-journals and online databases in educational enviroments

HAN in research and education—The possible applications are shown in three scenarios.

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Scenario 1

The guidelines
  • Access to e-resources from anywhere in the world
  • Access only for authorized users
  • Access from any web browser and any operating system, without manual configuration by the user
The realization

A university is asked to provide students with access to e-resources from off campus, whether from home or during a semester abroad. Because the university cannot require the students to use certain hardware and software in their personal PCs, access should be possible without requiring any specific software installation or user configuration. Furthermore, access should be possible from all PC operating systems. HAN fulfills all of these specifications, and its integrated authentication mechanisms ensure that only authorized users have access from off campus. When the user authenticates with the HAN server, HAN checks the user's identity against the credentials stored in the library system. At the same time, HAN ensures that users can only access the e-resources for which they have sufficient privileges.

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Scenario 2

The guidelines
  • Different departments purchase different e-resources, and hence should have different use privileges
  • Exception from the obligation to purchase site-wide licenses based on the fact that the company uses a single public IP address
  • Individual and departmental restrictions on access to e-resources using AD as the primary authentication system
The realization

A large governmental organization with a strict security policy uses a single public IP address on its Internet gateway. As a result, even though certain e-resources are only needed by individual departments or user groups, the agency would ordinarily be obliged to purchase site-wide licenses. But because HAN provides the option of assigning e-resource use rights to individual users, user groups, stations or groups of stations, the use of the e-resources can be very finely controlled behind the Internet gateway in spite of the technical limitation of the single public IP address. Thus the number of licenses required for e-resources is reduced to the actual number of users concerned. HAN communicates with the publishers of the e-resources using a specifiable IP address, but at the same time ensures that only those users who are authorized by the system administrator have access to the e-resources.

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Scenario 3

The guidelines
  • Statistical breakdown of e-resource use events by user or department
  • Usage statistics over all publishers by user or department
  • Usage accounting by actual use frequency, duration and document types
The realization

The research library of a university is operated as a profit center. HAN records the use of all centrally managed e-resources, from all providers, and presents statistical analyses by user or department in the form of "views". The monthly usage data recorded in this way is used to charge individual cost centers based on actual use. Each user receives individual usage data in numeric and graphic form as an accounting statement.