The Library Cloud Pros and Cons

Abstract

Cloud computing can be defined in a number of ways, making it confusing for librarians to understand what is available and what it delivers. Although computer scientists and technologists may have a strict definition of cloud computing involving “on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources” (see the NIST Definition of Cloud Computing), for non-IT librarians it’s enough to think about cloud computing as library data and services hosted beyond the library’s walls and accessible via the web. More and more electronic resources and software used in libraries are hosted in the cloud.