1. Can Cloud Computing help for Government
Colleges to Automate their Libraries?
A Point of View
Vasanth Raju N.
Librarian
Government First Grade
College
Periyapatna
vasanthrz@gmail.com
N.S. Harinarayana
Associate Professor
Department of Library &
Information Science,
University of Mysore, Mysore
ns.harinarayana@gmail.com
Paper Presented at the International Conference on “Emerging Technologies
and Future of Libraries”
January 30th-31st 2015, Gulbarga University, Gulbarga

2. Presentation Layout
• Library automation and its need in college libraries
• Present status of library automation in government college libraries
• Why library automation has not been success so far in many of the government
college libraries?
• Issues in ICTs implementation in college libraries and status of library automation
• 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.

3. Library Automation
• “Library Automation is the use of automatic
and semiautomatic data processing machines
to perform such traditional library activities
as acquisitions, cataloguing, circulation, serial
control and other library related
activities”(Kent, 1977).

4. Why We Need to Automate College Libraries?
• Information Explosion (Difficult to handle “Big Data”)
• Availability of information in different form and formats (E-Journals,
E-books, images and other formats)
• Easy Access to Library Collections (OPAC) (Save Users time)
• Reduce the duplication of work
• Reduce man power requirement
• Data exchange and Integration (eg.,: Copy Cataloguing)
• Networking of Libraries or Resource Sharing
• Emergence of “Digital Natives”/ “Digital Networked Society”

5. Present Status of Library Automation in Government College
Libraries in Mysore
Name of the College
Status of Library Automation
Data Entry
(Retro-
Conversion)
Data Entry Done
by
Software Used
Sri.D.Devaraj Urs Government First
Grade College
75.00% Library Staff EasyLib
Maharani's Science College for
Women
50.00% Software Agency Library Manager
Maharani's Arts & Commerce College
for Women
50.00% Software Agency Library Manager
Government First Grade College -
Krishnarajanagar
50.00% Software Agency Library Manager
Government First Grade College-
Kuvempu Nagar
40.00% Software Agency Library Manager
Government First Grade College –
Heggadevanakote
35.00% Software Agency Library Manager
Government First Grade College-
Bannur
No No No
Government First Grade College-
Bilikere
No No No
Government First Grade College-
Bilikere
No No No

6. Present Status of Library Automation in Government College
Libraries in Mysore
Conti…….
Name of the College Data Entry
(retro-conversion)
Data entry
done by
Software
Used
Government First Grade College-Hanagodu No No No
Government College for Women-
Hootagalli(Vijaynagar)
No No No
Government First Grade College-Nanjanagudu No No No
Government College for Women-Saligrama No No No
Government First Grade College-Periyapatna No No No
Government First Grade College- Siddartha
Layout, Mysore
No No No
Government First Grade College- T.Narasipura No No No
Government First Grade College- Ullahalli,
Nanjangud
No No No
Government First Grade College for Women-
Hunsur
No No No
Adopted from: “Problems in application of ICT in government colleges: A study of selected colleges in Mysore district” by P. Balasubramanya & D. S.
Guruprasad, 2011, Paper presented at the National Conference on Managing College Libraries: Issues and Trends, JSS College of Arts, Commerce &
Science, Mysore.

7. Why library automation has not been success so far in many of the
college libraries?
• Lack of infrastructure (building)
 there are 366 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

8. Sl. No Name of the College Year
of
Establishment
Student
Strength*
Library Staff
Librarian Supporting
Staff
1 Maharani's Science College for Women 1919 890 1 4
2 Government First Grade College -Krishnarajanagar 1971 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 7
5 Government First Grade College – Heggadevanakote 1985 330 1 -
6 Government First Grade College -Periyapatna 1991 446 1 1
7 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 1
14 Government First Grade College- Siddartha Layout,
Mysore
2007 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.pdf
Note: 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 recent years

9. Increasing Student Strength in Govt. Colleges
0
50000
100000
150000
200000
250000
300000
2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14
151931
165451
221301
229839
287792
StudentStrength
Academic Year
Source: http://www.dce.kar.nic.in

10. • Lack of Financial Support and Planning
Sl. No. Years Grants for Book Purchasing
(in Lakhs)
1 2009-10 358352.00
2 2010-11 809400.50
3 2013-14 264978.00
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

11. • 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”

12. 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).

13. 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.

14. 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

15. Cloud Computing Service Providers
• Amazon EC2 (Elastic Computing Cloud)
• Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Services)
• Google Apps
• Windows Azure
• IBM Smart Cloud, etc.,

16. 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.,

17. Examples of ILS in Cloud Computing Environment
University of Mysore WebOPAC hosted on the Cloud
http://libcat.mysore-univ.org/
Courtesy: University of Mysore Main Library

18. Western State College of Colorado Using Google Apps
for hosting its E-Library
Courtesy: Western State College of Colorado

19. Google Docs one of the well known office applications
on the Cloud
Courtesy: https://docs.google.com/

20. LibraryThing is another applications runs on the Cloud
Computing Environment
Courtesy: http://www.librarything.com

21. Flickr Photo stream on the Web hosted on the cloud
Computing Environment
Courtesy: http://www.flickr.com

22. Thank You
?
Courtesy: OCLC