FEATURE Cloud tools
accessing information more fluidly and collaborating more seamlessly. While librarians still play a key role there are “growing pains” for some librarians because cloud-based systems put librarians in a different place in the research stream. Today, researchers gather information first via an “explorer” model, which is followed by a second more collaborative stage. ‘The new model requires new ways to interact – not just as gatekeepers who provide access to critical knowledge, but value-added information professionals collaborating at a later stage in the research. Some librarians may feel less comfortable with the increasingly interdisciplinary approach in corporate and academic research as well as with the rapid speed research is conducted. Researchers are accessing information on all types of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, and often want access to research on their terms so librarians may not even be working if a researcher is accessing information in the middle of the night, or in a different time zone and location.’
New services and collaboration As research libraries continue to embrace cloud technology, so new services are being developed to meet the evolving needs of libraries that draw on the inherent benefits of cloud-based systems, as highlighted by Chirapurath of ProQuest Workflow Solutions: ‘Examples of these services are tools such as improved assessment services that can manage and track resources across geographic boundaries and multiple locations or new research management systems. Cloud-based
systems also offer the ability to share electronic resources and information about databases and holdings across different locations and different types of research libraries at a much faster rate than before.’ Tamir Borensztajn, vice president of discovery strategy at EBSCO Information Services, added to this point: ‘Our cloud infrastructure has enabled us to extend our offerings beyond our core platforms and do this in a way that delivers tremendous value to our customers. Over the years, we developed lightweight applications – many through customer collaboration – that augment our discovery service and our EBSCO
‘Challenges facing research libraries in relation to the cloud are much less than just a year ago’
host platform. The key is that we now deploy and maintain these applications in the cloud for subscribing customers. For libraries this means little or no work in deploying apps that augment their existing EBSCO platforms.
‘In short, the cloud is really a way to deliver more value to customers. We are able to reduce customer workload – customers do not need to maintain a server or worry about installing the latest software update. And, importantly, we can readily grow our offerings and deploy apps quickly to the benefit of our customers and end- users alike,’ continues Borensztajn.
Chirapurath of ProQuest Workflow Solutions added: ‘Cloud-based systems bring the highest value in what they enable librarians and researchers to accomplish in collaboration. These technologies fundamentally change the relationship between researchers and librarians. It used to be that researchers came to a corporate library and requested specific, often esoteric, information which the librarian would provide them. Instead libraries now support researchers. These researchers value the serendipity of knowledge insights and connections made when research tools are in their hands. This generation of researcher looks to librarians to help guide them in this interactive discovery experience once they have identified an area that they want more information about.’
He concluded: ‘Researchers’ are being helped by librarians who play a different role (compared to times past) so they can reach the knowledge they seek. This evolution in research is a much more scalable model that exposes new and continual changing content to a broader and more diverse group of researchers who are increasingly collaborating on new and exciting interdisciplinary breakthroughs.
‘One other benefit that should be highlighted is that cloud-based systems inherently manage electronic resources better. We are all aware of the shift from traditional print resources to electronic content, as well as the increasing volume of multi-lingual content. Content is exploding! In this explosion, the cloud offers better economies of scale to manage the vastness and complexity of content.’
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38 Research Information OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015
@researchinfo
www.researchinformation.info
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