www.IndianJournals.com Members Copy, Not for Commercial Sale Downloaded From IP - 210.212.129.125 on dated 23-Feb-2016 PEARL - A Journal of Library and Information Science Vol. 9, No. 3, July-September 2015: 147-151 DOI : 10.5958/0975-6922.2015.00020.0 Indianjournals.com 147 Scientist – B (LS), Information and Library Network Centre, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India Email id: mitesh@inflibnet.ac.in Libraries on Cloud: A Step towards Green Society Miteshkumar Pandya ABSTRACT Cloud computing is now becoming very much popular in libraries. The article provides a brief background on cloud computing in this highly networked and pervasive information age. It is followed by an introduction to the cloud computing and definition. The article assumes that the role played by cloud computing in current era is quite suitable for libraries. It lists advantages and shortcomings of cloud computing. This is followed by the types of cloud services and features and it also lists some of the popular cloud service providers for libraries available today. Keywords: Cloud Computing, Library on Cloud, Computer Application, Green Society, Library Software INTRODUCTION A cloud computing is a combination of networking, storage, management solutions which facilitate libraries to provide value services to its users. Cloud computing is a network technology which uses internet as gateway to provide services. The term cloud computing is completely new in terms of IT technology, but the concept of cloud computing is associated with network technology and therefore one can say that cloud computing is not a new concept but it a new form of existing system. To be more specific, cloud computing is the improvement of distributed computing, parallel computing, grid computing and distributed databases across networks. The basic principle of cloud computing is to perform tasks from distributed network sources in large numbers of distributed computers from remote locations. Cloud computing is a set of hardware and software which provides access to the stored information using network connection. It uses web technology and central remote servers to maintain data, software and applications. Cloud computing allows users to use applications which have been installed on remote server. It provides platform for data storage as well as application to access stored data from remote servers. Cloud computing is a model which provides convenient and on demand access to shared resources over network using internet. One of the most important features to consider cloud for libraries is cost reduction, easy maintenance and re-provisioning of resources and these results in an increase productivity of the libraries. Cloud also helps to save environment in terms of energy, papers, etc., Cloud computing offers demand-based network access to resources such as software applications and storage space. Nowadays, libraries are hosting their data on cloud, which gives big relief to library professionals from the maintenance of high-end servers, software installations and configurations. With research and development in all the areas of knowledge, more and more information is being generated by the researchers. This information is available in soft copy and hard copy. Once the research is tested and approved by the research coordinating agency, it is available for others to refer in any form. When the research output comes in a print form, it causes environment because papers are made from the trees, which indirectly affects environment. To avoid environmental effect, one has to keep all the published material in soft copy and it can be printed whenever needed.