The Librarian's Guide to Academic Research in the Cloud

Book excerpt: The cloud can be a powerful tool for conducting and managing research. The Librarian's Guide to Academic Research in the Cloud is a practical guide to using cloud services from a librarian's point of view. As well as discussing how to use various cloud-based services, the title considers the various privacy and data portability issues associated with web-based services. This book helps readers make the most of cloud computing, including how to fold mobile devices into the cloud-based research management equation. The book is divided into several chapters, each considering a key aspect of academic research in the cloud, including: defining the cloud; capturing information; capturing and managing scholarly information; storing files; staying organized, communicating; and sharing. The book ends by considering the future of the cloud, examining what readers can expect from cloud services in the next few years, and how research might be changed as a result. - Covers a wide range of services, discussing their strengths and weaknesses and showing readers how to use them more effectively - Offers a research perspective for readers who don't know how to connect cloud services with academic research - Contextualises cloud-based services, explaining not just what they do and how they work, but how they can best be used