A New Framework for Building Academic Library through Cloud Computing

Abstract

Libraries all over the world suffer from common problems like flexibility associated with digital data, lower levels of efficiency, and costs involved in managing the entire IT infrastructure. Few options are available in collaborating with other libraries, which is the prime reason for subordinate levels of efficiency. For the past 20 years the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) has fundamentally changed the practices and procedures of nearly all forms of endeavor within business and governance. Within education, ICT has begun to have a presence, but the cost of ICT is not affordable. The basic principle of cloud computing entails the reduction of in-house data centres and the delegation of a portion or all of the information technology infrastructure capability to a third party. Universities and colleges are the core of innovation through their advanced research and development. Subsequently, higher institutions may benefit greatly by harnessing the power of cloud computing. Cloud computing would help in bridging the gap between academic libraries and ICT. Sharing of data among the libraries will in principle reduce the overall cost and increase efficiency. Capital expenditure done on infrastructure will chiefly be converted into operational expenditure. It will also enhance the user's experience and will help in making the libraries a lot more scalable. In this chapter the authors discuss problems faced with academic libraries and development efforts to overcome that problem. Then they propose to improve current user service model with cloud computing.