Cloud tools FEATURE
(EEA) with “effective data curation provided throughout the full data lifecycle”. If you are in receipt of an EPSRC funding granted after May 2015 and seen as failing to comply – essentially, by obstructing the sharing of publicly-funded research data – this could result in a loss of eligibility and funding.’
Kaye continued: ‘The EPSRC requirements encourage engagement with cloud-based scholarly communications services. Indeed, one of the EPSRC’s recommendations is that on publication each dataset is given a unique identifier which can be cited to support discoverability and reuse, such as DataCite’s digital object identifier (DOI), a system for identifying content objects in the digital environment that’s actually run out of the cloud to support discovery – even if an object’s ownership or location changes, its DOI remains the same, to offer a stable, reliable link. An added bonus is that this system complements and is interoperable with ORCID, a unique digital identifier for researchers, for which more than 1.5m IDs have been issued globally. The result is that research data is easier to find and reuse, and you’re actually able to properly track the impact too.’
share research more broadly because the open access information resources being ingested into cloud-based discovery systems help corporate researchers gain access to more current research. The increasing adoption by both types of libraries is fuelling a more rapidly movement to cloud- based systems in both library segments.’
The cloud and research data management (RDM) John Kaye, senior co-design manager at Jisc, observed how research data management requirements are bringing forward the need for research libraries to invest in cloud solutions: ‘For research libraries yet to adopt cloud-based services or those still needing to be convinced, I would argue one of the most compelling cases for the cloud comes from the research funders themselves. ‘To take a few steps back, the RDM policies of funders set certain requirements for the use, management and storage of research data. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), for example, mandates that data from the project it funds must be stored within the European Economic Area
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Kay added: ‘With research libraries often the responsible party for implementing and managing RDM solutions at universities, cloud services cannot be overlooked. The challenge for them, then, is choosing the right cloud application for the right lifecycle stage. ‘For example, at the “managing active data” stage, cloud storage that enables local file sync’ing and share or other file storage solutions within the EEA are often preferred by researchers, for awarding collaboration opportunities and offering an easy way to backup research data.’
Benefits of the cloud for research libraries
So what opportunities does cloud-based computing bring to research libraries? Chirapurath of ProQuest Workflow Solutions explained: ‘Cloud-based systems offer a variety of benefits to research libraries, many of which uniquely address the goals of librarians and researchers. Cloud-based systems are lower cost for libraries, they are more easily and rapidly updated, and have a stronger support system across the world with multiple locations. Cloud- based systems also better meet the needs of modern researchers operating in an “anytime, anywhere and on any device” model.’ He continued: ‘For librarians, cloud-based systems facilitate research collaboration
across locations and enable broader access to more up-to-date content. This increases the speed of research and provides opportunities for more interdisciplinary and global multi- location research. Cloud-based systems better support leading edge research with improved access to near real-time resources compared to older technological systems that are based on inventory and management of print resources. Since researchers are looking for an edge with the research they are doing, whether scientific,
‘Management requirements are bringing forward the need for research libraries to invest in cloud solutions’
medical or technical, cloud-based library discovery and management systems result in faster insights, potentially leading to faster breakthroughs.’
Chirapurath added: ‘The opportunities offered to libraries through use of these tools are in addition to those offered by any cloud-based system, such as the reduction in hardware costs, decrease in IT support time and expense, and a full disaster recovery system that libraries don’t have to administer. Rather than spending time and money on hardware maintenance and IT infrastructure with traditional systems, librarians can reallocate budget to additional premium content that benefits researchers and they use their time to bring better value to research with their experience and insights.’
Challenges for cloud-based computing and tools for research libraries Pace of OCLC believes the challenges facing research libraries in relation to the cloud are much less than just a year ago, and observed: ‘We talk to libraries about data security, privacy, and data ownership, ensuring libraries realise that their data is their data and moving to the OCLC cloud is not something that should be daunting.’ Talking about the perception of cloud-based technologies, Pace added: ‘An early adopter of OCLC’s WorldShare Management Services said “one of the main challenges is to overcome the illusion of control around managing library management system locally [as opposed to in the cloud]”.’
Chirapurath of ProQuest Workflow Solutions observed: ‘The “library” has become more of a virtual knowledge centre marked by researchers
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015 Research Information 37
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