SeamlessAccess has launched a new community initiative called Advancing Federated Identity for Library E-Resources. It follows a year of groundwork by SeamlessAccess, NISO, Internet2, FIM4L and SNSI. The project is expected to run for about two years following convening its steering committee – likely early 2027 start. It brings together libraries, institutional identity and access management (IAM) teams, publishers, technology providers, federations, national research and education networks (NRENs), and standards organizations. Together, they will define requirements, explore barriers to adoption, and develop and test practical recommendations.
Federated identity lets researchers sign in with their institutional credentials to reach the content their library provides. Many academic institutions already have this infrastructure in place. However, they often do not use it for library e-resources. Meanwhile, legacy access methods such as IP-based access carry growing risks.
The gap between discovery and access is widening. More researchers now find content through search engines, APIs, AI assistants, and other tools that sit outside library-managed routes. Analysis by EBSCO Information Services, shared in The Scholarly Kitchen in June 2026, examined academic libraries that have federation available. Fewer than a third of them use it for e-resource access. The analysis also looked at around 1,400 institutions that moved to federated single sign-on (SSO) between April 2024 and April 2025. Across these institutions, authenticated logins rose by a median of 23%. SeamlessAccess sees this as early evidence that wider use of federated access could help researchers reach more of the content they need. Testing this idea is part of the initiative’s work.
Over the past year, this groundwork brought the scholarly communications and research and education identity communities together to define the problem and shape a joint response. The proposal received strong international support at GÉANT’s TNC26 conference in Helsinki. The initiative also draws on earlier work through RA21 and Federated Identity Management for Libraries (FIM4L).
The initiative is inviting nominations for Steering Committee members. with a deadline of 27th November 2026. The committee is due to start meeting later in 2026. The work will then move through three phases – Discovery, Design, and Pilots – and each community will have opportunities to take part.
Read the full announcement on the SeamlessAccess blog, where you can also view the charter and register your interest.