EZproxy

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EZproxy is a web proxy server program extensively used by libraries to give access from outside the library's computer network to restricted-access websites that authenticate users by IP address. This allows library patrons at home or elsewhere to log in through their library's EZproxy server and gain access to bibliographic databases and the like to which their library subscribes.

The software was originally written by Chris Zagar in 1999 who founded Useful Utilities LLC to support it. It is inexpensive and well supported to the extent that almost all libraries that provide such access in the United States use it. OCLC announced in January 2008 that it had acquired the product and was hiring Zagar as a full time consultant for a year.^[1]

Chris Zagar is a librarian who serves as a systems librarian at the Estrella Mountain Community College, a part of the Maricopa Community Colleges in Arizona. Zagar won the 2006 LITA/Brett Butler Entrepreneurship Award for his work with EZproxy.^[2]

EZproxy is a URL-rewriting program^[3] that "works by dynamically altering the URLs within the web pages provided by your database vendor. The server names within the URLs of these web pages are changed to reflect your EZproxy server instead, causing your users to return to the EZproxy server as they access links on these web pages. The result is a seamless access environment for your users without the need for automatic proxy configuration files."^[4] Previous proxy solutions were complex and difficult to maintain and authentication systems like Shibboleth still far in the future.^[2]

The software is sometimes confused with generic proxy server software designed to control web access. It is sometimes referred to as a "proxy referral" server to distinguish it.

The software has been purchased by more than 2,500 institutions in over 60 countries.^[5]