Understanding User Access and Security in Hyperion

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Understanding User Access and Security in Hyperion

Hyperion has several layers of access and security for users. Although there are some differences in the way Hyperion staff and public patrons access Hyperion, the controls are the same for both types of users. The Hyperion system employs security and access controls defined in individual patron records. In day-to-day operation, Hyperion will follow these security and access control definitions, allowing users to access only material to which they are entitled according to their patron record.

Access Level

The defined user access level in each user’s patron record (SYSTEMADMIN, SUPERVISOR, STAFF, PUBLIC, and EXTENDED PUBLIC) will be used to control access to the various system commands and functions. These same access levels can also be applied to the archived media files as a means of specifying user access privileges to portions or all of the archived material.

Accountability

An option (Access Control Manager) is available for further expanding searching and viewing control of archived material. This facility, which is part of SirsiDynix Symphony’s Accountability module, adds three additional access control variables (Classification, Need To Know, and Access Restrictions) to both the patron records and the metadata records for material in Hyperion.

In Hyperion (and in SirsiDynix Symphony WorkFlows), an accountable resource is classified and an accountable user has clearance. This user clearance must be greater than or equal to the classification of the resource the user wants to charge out. A user must meet the Classification, Need To Know, and Access Restrictions requirements before accessing material.

Access Restrictions for Display of Unavailable Materials

In the Hyperion Configuration policy, a third level of security may be added for the site that limits the display of resources to which a user does not have access. In Display Unavailable Search Hit, one of three options may be selected.

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If the Not Found option is selected, only search hits that can be accessed by the user will be displayed. If the Resource Type is inaccessible to the user, no message will display, and the user will not know how many search hits their term may have given them.

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If the Unavailable option is selected, and if the Resource Type is inaccessible to the user, the user will be given the number of hits their search term found but not the name of each Resource Type. In place of each Resource Type’s name, the following heading will display.

UNAVAILABLE FOR DISPLAY

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If the Display option is selected, an Resource Type that is inaccessible to the user will be displayed. The name of each Resource Type and the number of hits that the search term retrieved will be displayed. However, if the user tries to view the Resource Type and/or its attached images, the following message displays.

SORRY, YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO ACCESS THIS RESOURCE RECORD.

Patron Searching and Retrieval of Archival Materials

Users can access the Hyperion digital media in a number of ways.

Bibliographic Searching in the Library Catalog

The SirsiDynix Symphony bibliographic database can be linked with the Hyperion file system. The catalog generally contains a rich set of descriptive attributes, and may also contain a text abstract of the metadata file content. The patron searching the e-Library can search the catalog using the same key words, phrases, and power searches that they are accustomed to when searching the catalog. When a bibliographic record is retrieved that has a link to an archived file in Hyperion, the record will contain active hyperlinks that can be used to directly access the associated file(s). Refer to FAQs: Linking Hyperion Data to the Library Catalog for more information.

Navigating the Hyperion Directory Tree

Media files are organized into a hierarchical structure according to a classification scheme defined by the site’s staff. When a Hyperion system is accessed via a connection powered by the e-Library, a Hierarchy display option is available that can be used to navigate through the archivist’s classification methods. End-users can navigate this structure in search of material, making use of name, description, and other attribute information maintained by the system in an associated metadata record. The Hyperion staff equivalent is the directory tree of the Resource Manager wizard.

Full Text Searching

For file types that are subject to optical character recognition, it is possible to index this ASCII text into a full text index, which can be searched by end users to locate resources that contain words, phrases, and subject terms of interest.

Full text searching is only available for sites that purchase the Hyperion Media Text Index Manager, available only in the e-Library.

Metadata Searching

The metadata of the resource records is indexed by reports that create a keyword index, allowing end users to query by keywords or phrases. Hyperion returns a list of files that may contain attached image files. Both the e-Library and the Hyperion client allow simple or advanced keyword searches.

Displaying Files Retrieved in Hyperion

Material of any file-based digital format can be archived into the Hyperion system. However, special consideration must be given to the end-user’s ability to deal with every archived file format should it be delivered to the desktop.

Web browsers and the Hyperion client can both be configured to retrieve files of any format from the metadata, and then automatically launch other desktop applications to open and present the file content to the end-user. This approach extends the list of suitable archived file formats to include those produced by most proprietary and custom application programs, including popular desktop publishing, spreadsheet, and graphics suites.

Software must be installed on the end-user’s desktop to display digital media. Most PCs already have a web browser, and the most common web browser plug-in applets are easily downloaded from various web sources. Other applications to be used to display media may need to be purchased from third parties.

With the Web Client Server, Hyperion delivers archived media files to a commercial web browser product. These browsers support files in the HTM, JPG, GIF, AVI, and WAV formats. The list of acceptable file formats can easily be extended with the addition of various commercially available browser plug-in applications, including ones for handling PDF, MOV, MPG, SGML, and other formats. These browser extension applications, or applets, enable the browser to present the media file seamlessly within the context of the browser. From the Hyperion staff client, the View Image helper displays the images, based on your PC’s Windows registry, and launches the plug-in or program required to view the selected image.

To keep Hyperion easy to use, a small number of file formats should be chosen for the archived files, and all other formats encountered during the capture and loading process should be translated into one of these. Robust digital collections can be constructed using the JPG format for all images and scanned documents, and PDF (Adobe Acrobat) for all proprietary native application formats, such as Word, Excel, and others.