Making the Most of a Scarce Resource: Leveraging LibCal to Circulate Adobe Software Licenses
Presented by
- Ken Irwin (Miami University)
- Michael Bomholt (Miami University)
Description
Adobe (Photoshop, Illustrator, Creative Cloud, etc.) licenses are expensive and many institutions have to ration access to them. But many users are eager for access to their powerful software, and often need access only for a short time. Using open-source software that we will share with you, we use the Adobe User Management API to turn Adobe licenses on and off for users who reserve access to the software using LibCal’s “Equipment Checkout” feature. If a license is available (not checked out), users can get short-term access to the software almost instantaneously and without direct intervention by library staff. This lets us maintain an affordable number of licenses and legally and efficiently share them among students, faculty, and staff. This open source solution can also be used with other licenses that can be managed by an API.
Poster
Software Checkout Process
Software Checkout Workflow
- User checks software in/out in LibCal (signing into LibCal with institutional Single Sign-On)
- The app fetches current LibCal checkouts
- The app fetches current permissions from Adobe
- The app compares list
- The app pushes changes to the Adobe API
- Adobe allows access to user
- User can sign in using Single Sign On
Supplemental Documents
About
Ken Irwin is a Web Services Librarian at Miami University. He is interested in developing open-source solutions to solve challenging library issues and to make the most of our resources.
Mike Bomholt is a Technology Development Manager at Miami University. He specializes in endpoint device and software management.
