By Mikkel Hald, 30/01/26
The specialist library of Central Denmark Region has completed a transition from IP-based access to electronic publisher resources via EZproxy to single-sign-on (SSO) directly with the publishers – with WAYF as the federation and access infrastructure.
Central Denmark Region’s e-library went live with the new federated access model on 4 December 2025, and the experience since then has been positive – both technically and in terms of users’ access to the resources.
The transition takes place at a time when The Royal Danish Library is in the process of phasing out the operation of institution-specific EZproxy solutions, and when major international publishers are increasingly moving away from IP-based access towards SSO. Today, virtually all major publishers are connected to eduGAIN, making direct institutional login possible for WAYF member institutions.
A larger effort – once
Central Denmark Region could have chosen a relatively simple transition to a commercial EZproxy service, but instead chose to invest in direct SSO access. This entails a certain amount of initial setup work, where access must be configured with each individual publisher, and where processes and terminology are not always consistent across parties.
Experience shows that this work requires close coordination between librarians, publishers’ contact persons and SSO/IT professionals – and that a significant part of the effort consists in avoiding talking past one another and maintaining focus on the actual technical objective.
Once the setup is in place, however, there is very little maintenance work involved, if any.
Seamless access for users
From the library’s perspective, it was of course crucial that the user experience remained simple. By means of “WAYFless” URLs, access can be experienced in much the same way as with a classic proxy prefix: users are taken directly to the resource and logged in automatically via the institution’s login – without having to actively select their institution from a list.
At the same time, a number of technical challenges often associated with proxy solutions are avoided, including the maintenance of stanza configurations.
A path has now been paved
An important outcome of the work in Central Denmark Region is that most of the initial teething problems have now been addressed: ambiguities on the publishers’ side, misunderstandings between contact persons, and uncertainty about specific SSO configurations have been clarified.
This means that the path is now significantly clearer for other organisations. Region Zealand is already well underway in following the same route and can benefit greatly from the experience gained.
WAYF’s role
From WAYF’s perspective, the effort has primarily involved contributing SSO technical expertise, bringing the federation’s concrete capabilities into play – and not least acting as a link between library and publisher. By actively managing communication, WAYF has been able to address misunderstandings at an early stage and quickly refocus attention on what was actually required to reach the goal.
The project demonstrates that direct SSO access within WAYF and eduGAIN is today a mature and sustainable solution – and that it is becoming increasingly easy for other institutions to follow the same path.