Cloud Computing for College Library Automation

Vasantha Raju N.LibrarianGovt. First Grade CollegePeriyapatnavasanthrz@gmail.com

18th Refresher Course in Library & Information Science UGC-Academic Staff College

16th Feb 2012University of Mysore, Mysore

Presentation Layout

• Why library automation has not been success so far in many of the government college libraries?

• What is cloud computing and why we need to go for cloud computing?

• Important layers of cloud computing

• How cloud computing architecture can help colleges to automate their libraries?

• Cloud Computing Service Providers

• Issues involved in cloud computing?

• Examples of implementing cloud computing in libraries and other domains.

Why library automation has not been success so far in many of the college libraries?

• Lack of infrastructure (building)

there are 344 government colleges. Many of the colleges established in 2007-2008 have no own buildings.

In a recent study done by Balasubramanya & Guruprasad (2011) have found that, of the 10 government degree colleges they have surveyed in Mysore district, none of them have separate buildings for libraries.

Lack of Man Power Support

Sl. No Name of the College Yearof

Establishment

Student Strength

*

Library Staff

Librarian

Supporting Staff

1 Maharani's Science College for Women 1919 890 1 42 Government First Grade College -

Krishnarajanagar1971 1734 1 2

3 Sri.D.Devaraj Urs Government First Grade College 

1971 1235 1 1

4 Maharani's Arts College for Women 1979 3020 1 75 Government First Grade College –

Heggadevanakote1985 330 1 -

6 Government First Grade College -Periyapatna 1991 446 1 27 Government First Grade College-Kuvempu

Nagar  1996 639 1 1

8 Government First Grade College-Bannur 2007 384 1 -9 Government First Grade College-Bilikere 2007 160 1 -

10 Government First Grade College-Hanagodu 2007 24 1 -11 Government  College for Women-

Hootagalli(Vijaynagar)2007 362 1 -

12 Government First Grade College-Nanjanagudu

2007 468 1 1

13 Government  College for Women-Saligrama 2007 233 1 114 Government First Grade College- Siddartha

Layout, Mysore2007 87 1 -

15 Government First Grade College- T.Narasipura

2007 320 1 -

16 Government First Grade College- Ullahalli, Nanjangud

2007 41 1 -

17 Government First Grade College for Women-Hunsur

2007 186 1 -

*Source:http://dce.kar.nic.in/statistics/gov/collegewisecoursewise_govt.pdfNote: The student strength presented in Table 1 is for 2008-09. The student strength in almost all the colleges in Mysore District has doubled in the year 2010-11.

2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-120

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

446491

571

753

Years

Num

ber o

f Stu

dent

s

Figure 1: Increase in Student Strength in GFGC- Periyapatna

Source: GFGC-Periyapatna Admission Records

• Lack of Financial Support and Planning

Sl. No. Years Grants for Book Purchasing (in Lakhs)

1 2007-08 144500.002 2008-09 264878.003 2009-10 358352.004 2010-11 809400.50

There is no proper plan for deciding in how much funds or financial resources should be utilized for subscribing scholarly journals/books and maintaining library aesthetics or day to day functions.

Source: GFGC-Periyapatna Library Stock Verification Reports (2007-2011)

• Issues in ICTs implementation in libraries

In 2009 DCE in Gulbarga University Library and Karnataka State College Librarians Association (KSCLE) has organized week long program for all the government college librarians to train them in using contemporary technologies for library management

In 2011 DCE in association with National Informatics Centre (NIC) provided hands-on training in using E-Granthalaya a free library automation software developed by NIC for 60 government college librarians in Karnataka (Muthuraja, 2011).

Still the issues of availability of hardware requirements and software selection for library automation have remained unresolved.

So how do we overcome these problems? One solution that we can thought of is “Cloud Computing”

What is cloud computing and why we need to go for cloud computing?

• What is “Cloud Computing”?

“Cloud computing is a style of computing in which massively scalable IT-related capabilities are provided as a service to external customers using Internet technologies” (Gartner, 2009).

“Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a metered service over a network (typically the Internet)” (Wikipedia 2012).

“Cloud computing means using Web services for our computing needs which could include using software applications, storing data, accessing computing power, or using a platform to build applications” (Kroski, 2009).

Important Layers of Cloud Computing

SaaS (Software as a Service)

Examples : E-mails, CRM, ILS, Google Docs, etc

PaaS (Platform as a Service)

Examples: Application Development,

IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)

Examples : Network, Data Storage, Hosting etc.

How cloud computing architecture can help colleges to automate their libraries?

• Reduce dependency on infrastructure ( server and other hardware peripherals)

• Cost effectiveness

• Duplication of work can be avoided

• Browser based technology (virtualization) 24/7 Access

• Integration and exchange of data and others

Cloud Computing Service Providers

• Amazon EC2 (Elastic Computing Cloud)

• Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Services)

• Google Apps

• Windows Azure

• IBM Smart Cloud, etc.,

Examples of ILS in Cloud Computing Environment

University of Mysore WebOPAC hosted on the Cloudhttp://libcat.mysore-univ.org/

Courtesy: University of Mysore Main Library

Western State College of Colorado Using Google Apps for hosting its E-Library

Courtesy: Western State College of Colorado

Google Docs one of the well known office applications on the Cloud

Courtesy: https://docs.google.com/

LibraryThing is another applications runs on the Cloud Computing Environment

Courtesy: http://www.librarything.com

Flickr Photo stream on the Web hosted on the cloud Computing Environment

Courtesy: http://www.flickr.com

Issues in Implementing Cloud Computing

• Data Privacy (Patron Records)• Data Security or Data Ownership (Orwellian

Intrusion, Kiroski, 2009)• Need Internet for using cloud computing• Data Reliability • Data Lock-in (Interoperability), etc.,

Thank You

?

Courtesy: OCLC