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Academic libraries have long been seen as trustworthy stewards of user information, but in an increasingly dispersed digital environment, it has become challenging for libraries to provide completely safe online experiences. This essay, written from the perspective of a systems librarian at Boston College, suggests that academic libraries need to re-invent their privacy practices to better align with today's online reality.A collaborative, holistic approach is proposed: embedding privacy into how libraries collect, how they implement online access, how they teach, and how they advocate for privacy on their campuses. By taking a comprehensive look at privacy concerns across the library and the campus, and by developing practices grounded in the ethical underpinning of our profession, academic librarians can begin to earn back the trust of our users.

The objective of this study was to determine whether libraries that have implemented a next-generation library system are able to complete electronic resource management (ERM) workflows entirely within that system. A survey of librarians received 299 responses from users of Alma, WorldShare Management Services (WMS), and Sierra. Responses indicate that there are gaps in workflows and that many libraries are still performing core ERM tasks outside these three systems. The study concludes that these systems may require further development before they are able to fully support complex ERM processes.The rapid growth of electronic resources over the past 2 decades has fundamentally transformed how libraries acquire and manage their collections. To support increasingly complex electronic resource management (ERM) workflows, libraries have had to supplement their traditional integrated library system (ILS) with multiple additional software products such as ERM systems (ERMS), link resolvers, proxy servers, and knowledge bases. The lack of interoperability between these systems has also required librarians to invent manual workarounds such as storing data in spreadsheets, shared drives, or e-mails. For ERM processes to be optimally streamlined and efficient, more sophisticated applications-designed to support every aspect of ERM workflows-are needed. One measurement of success of any application designed to support ERM workflows should be the elimination of the patchwork of systems and workarounds that have plagued electronic resources librarians for years.In the past several years many academic libraries began retiring traditional print-resource-based ILSs in favor of next-generation systems that promise to more fully integrate electronic resource workflows. These new systems, dubbed "library services platforms" or LSPs by library automation consultant Marshall Breeding (2011), are designed to provide improved system functionalities that meet the current realities of complex collection management across all content formats. These new platforms can replace not only the library's ILS, but the ERMS and link resolver. As of December 2014, three LSP systems have been fully implemented by U.S. libraries: Ex Libris' Alma, OCLC's WorldShare Management Services (WMS), and Innovative's Sierra (Breeding, 2015). Two other systems, Kuali OLE and Proquest's Intota, are partially developed but not yet fully implemented (Breeding, 2015).Although these new LSP systems have been implemented in academic libraries for more than 3 years (Breeding, 2015), there has been little written to evaluate their impact on ERM processes. In particular, there has been no study that measures whether the external tools needed in a traditional ILS/ERM environment-such as homegrown systems, spreadsheets, e-mails, and so on-are still needed. The objective of this study was to determine whether libraries that have implemented an LSP (Alma, Sierra, or WMS) are still using external tools or whether they are able to complete their ERM workflows entirely...

Managing access to subscribed services in an era of abundance is a major challenge for libraries. Users have come to expect a seamless, personalized experience on their mobile devices, but traditional approaches to access management force librarians to choose between the anonymous ease of onsite IP authentication or the access friction experienced by users authenticating across multiple resources with Single Sign-On. Building on the work of the RA21 initiative, a recent NISO Recommended Practice on Improved Access to Institutionally Provided Information Resources charts a way forward. It will enable libraries to provide seamless, privacy-preserving and one-click access to its subscribed content from any device, any location, and from any starting point in the research process. The implementation of these recommendations will be led by SeamlessAccess.org, starting with a beta phase implementation in the fall of 2019. But how is user and data privacy protected? How is access simplified? How will numerous library use case scenarios be accommodated, and will current accessibility standards be implemented and supported? This paper discusses how these concerns are being addressed by a consortium of industry partners including librarians, access providers, publishers, and standards organizations. It also discusses how the coalition will manage this service for publishers and libraries while continuing to improve this user experience, provide governance on data policy and privacy issues, and maintain core web services specific to this initiative.

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