AquaBrowser Library will support OpenID for logging into your library stuff.
Going beyond that, Jeremy touches a good point on trust. Since AquaBrowser
is cross-datasource (ILSes, DBs, etc - both indexed and federated) we are
considering hooking into auth systems under water, by allowing users to
couple trust information (LDAP, library card pins, along those lines) to
their openid-based account. A question for us is how (or whether!) to make
that latter part an open infrastructure to others, by including some way to
guarantee user consent per individual action. Anyone interested I can give a
url to give it a whirl when it's hitting alpha-ish state.


--
Taco Ekkel
Director of Development
Medialab Solutions B.V.

AquaBrowser Library - Search, Discover, Refine

Modemstraat 2B / 1033 RW / Amsterdam / +31(0)20 635 3190 /
www.aquabrowser.com


On 3/23/07, William Denton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> I hadn't been too clear on OpenID but a week or two ago I listened to a
> recording of a talk about that explained it well.  I can't find it again,
> unfortunately, but you can take my word for it that it was pretty good.
>
> Is OpenID being used in libraries?  It struck me that it could work well
> for library systems that share resources: two systems that are part of the
> same consortium or provincial/state system; two neighbouring public
> systems that let people from one borrow at the other; academic libraries
> that want to make it easy for visiting profs and grad students to get
> temporary access to online resources; etc.
>
> Say I live in Lower Mowat but one day I'm in Upper Mowat, in the next
> municipality (or county, or whatever) over, visiting my tailor.  The two
> library systems are separate but share their resources.  I pop into the
> library to update my Twittering friends on my inseam measurement.  I don't
> actually have an account at the Upper Mowat Library, but I log in to one
> of their computers using my Lower Mowat-supplied OpenID identifier, and
> the Upper Mowat system recognizes where I'm from and gives me access to
> everything.
>
> Bill
> --
> William Denton, Toronto : miskatonic.org : frbr.org : openfrbr.org
>