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implemented by the local academic and research libraries in [Ethiopia] (although some of the international organisations located in the country may have some cloud-based library services). And, to my knowledge, there is no concrete plan or public discussions to introduce cloud- based library services and management by the institutions usually charged with coordinating such a task (for example, the Ministry of Education of Ethiopia). ‘However, moving to a cloud-based
library service is obviously [one of] the top priorities in the wish list of every academic library in the country. There is an increasing awareness of the specific advantages that moving to cloud-based library services could bring, particularly to the improvement of services and capacity of the ever-increasing academic libraries located in the public universities of the country.’ There are several factors that he sees in this low adoption: ‘In my view, moving to cloud-based library services will not be an easy option to consider by the local academic and research libraries at the moment, primarily because of: (a) the poor network infrastructure on the ground to connect to the cloud, and (b) the limited digital resources and services owned by the libraries to justify moving to the cloud (less than 100,000 e-books exist among the country’s 50+ academic libraries). The majority of the academic and research libraries lack sufficient network connections on the ground, even to participate fully in the national research and education network (introduced by the government under the name EthERNet in 2000). Adding to this is the perennial financial constraints that libraries have to give priority to [over] moving to the cloud.’ Kebede believes that, before rolling out
14 Research Information Summer 2022
“There is a need to recognise that standards have evolved differently around the world”
many cloud-based services in his country, there is still work to do in strengthening local digital libraries. ‘Of course, achieving these will make it easier to move to cloud- based services and other models of service provisions and resource building in the long run,’ he observed. So, what can vendors of library tools
do to help address such challenges, particularly where internet access is less reliable? Gonzalez of EBSCO shared an example of one approach her company has taken with a project in a prison, where access to the wider internet is prohibited: ‘We created a local version of our EBSCO Discovery service, so people who are not connected to the internet can access their items locally. It is important that we meet all readers, even those who don’t have continuous access to the internet.’ She also acknowledged inequality in the adoption of BIBFRAME. She noted: ‘EBSCO helps that issue by making it as easy as possible for people to use this standard. The library sends us their catalogue data and we do the entire transformation and publication for them. Their staff doesn’t have to learn the ins and outs of the standard before they get access.’ Observing that language can be a barrier
too, she added that EBSCO is working to translate the standard documentation into other languages, working, for example,
with libraries in South America and the National Library of Qatar, to translate standard documentation to Spanish and Arabic. She continued: ‘Our transformation pipeline that we use to publish this data is completely script and language agnostic; if the data is in a certain language, then we preserve that when we publish the data.’ In addition, there is a need to recognise that standards have evolved differently around the world. She said: ‘The MARC standard has many different flavours around the world and so we’re also expanding our services to work with all versions.’ So, what does the future hold for libraries in the cloud? ‘In five or 10 years’ time, I see library catalogues and catalogue data being completely decentralised,’ said Gonzalez. ‘Libraries won’t be sharing data based on record systems, but instead they will be able to share more granular pieces of data – for example, descriptions of a particular person or publisher or topic. That will enable libraries to expand the power of their data sharing, to understand what they have in common and what is unique to their collections.’ The continued move to the cloud in
libraries is inevitable, concluded Shaw. ‘We’re seeing both our university and the wider sector moving far more towards the cloud. Even if we in the library said, “this is not the direction that we want to go in”, it feels like we’d just be trying to run against the tide. You can either try and turn against it, or you can get involved in a way where you try to steer it in the right direction, like with the environmental considerations. Embracing the cloud has enabled us to think more strategically about how it best fits with the type of library we are, the type of university we are and where we want to go.’
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