Introduction

In the digital age, seamless access to academic and research materials is crucial for fostering innovation, collaboration, and scholarly excellence. Recognising this need, the Central Library of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) has implemented a robust remote access framework to ensure that students, faculty, and researchers can access electronic resources even when they are off-campus. Remote access is particularly vital in today’s hybrid academic environment, where learning, teaching, and research often extend beyond the boundaries of the physical campus. This strategic move not only enhances research productivity and academic performance but also reaffirms the library's mission to provide "information anywhere, anytime" to its scholarly community.

IIT Delhi employs the Shibboleth-based authentication system via its Identity Provider (IdP) portal, accessible at https://idp.iitd.ac.in. This secure, single sign-on mechanism allows users to authenticate themselves using their IITD credentials and gain access to licensed e-resources from any location worldwide. Shibboleth is part of the INFED (Indian Access Federation) framework managed by INFLIBNET, which provides a national platform for federated access to digital academic content.

Background

For in-campus access, IP authentication was the mechanism used by the library. But it has limitations that users can access e-resources only when they are on the Institute campus. Ideally, an authorised user should be able to access e-resources irrespective of his/her physical location at any time as long as they have access to the Internet. VPN was the preferred mode of Remote Access to the subscribed resources for IIT Delhi.

In order to overcome this limitation, the INDIAN Access Management Federation (INFED) has adopted Shibboleth, a standards-based open source software, for authenticating authorised users from institutions and providing them seamless access to e-resources from anywhere, anytime. More information about INFED and Shibboleth is available at https://infed.inflibnet.ac.in/shibboleth.php.