OpenAthens gives access to 1.5m

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has contracted with Eduserv to enable more than 1.5m NHS users to access all centrally procured online information, including e-journals and articles.

Eduserv will deliver the Identity & Access Management services contract through its OpenAthens solution.

The two-year deal will enable users to access all centrally procured online information such as bibliographic databases, e-journals and e-books.

Eduserv business director Dan Almour said: “It is vital that major public sector organisations such as the NHS have the latest information and resources at their fingertips, so documents can be accessed both onsite and remotely.

“This will make accessing information and data quicker and easier for end-users as well as helping the different NHS health authorities in England to make better use of their budget by collating usage reports which are then broken down by resource and user group.”

Through OpenAthens, organisations are able to manage multiple licenses for e-books and e-journals and provide access to them from one portal.

This gives administrators total visibility as to which publications and documents are being accessed and lets them manage subscriptions cost effectively.

OpenAthens has over 4m users worldwide including 50% of UK universities and the Department of Veterans Affairs in the United States.

The not-for-profit IT services provider has been delivering the service to NHS trusts in the UK since 2003.