Development of a Digital Library based on Cloud Computing Model

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2016 in the subject Information Management, , course: Communication Engineering, language: English, abstract: Over the years, there has been the need to improve the level of services provided by traditional libraries in the areas of resource accessibility and management. This is in a bid to address the challenges and inconveniences in accessing and managing the library resources. A viable means of achieving this purpose is by deployment of digital libraries. In this project, a digital library prototype based on cloud computing will be developed to demonstrate the viability of deploying and running cloud based digital libraries in Nigerian higher institutions, to curb the challenges encountered in accessing resources in traditional libraries by providing ubiquitous access to library resources.

Developing the digital library will comprise of two design phases viz; developing the library website and designing a local intranet on which the website will be hosted. The website will be developed using web scripting and programming languages such as Hypertext Mark-Up Language (HTML), JavaScript, and Hypertext Pre-Processor (PHP) etc. while the local intranet is a network of computers and other Wi-Fi enabled digital devices and a wireless access point. The network will be configured and the digital library website hosted on a dedicated server which provides services to the user devices through the access point.

At the end of this project, a prototype of cloud based digital library will be developed. On the library website, users can perform basic operations such as registering with the library and viewing the content of materials in the library collections. While the library administrator performs functions of book uploads and user authentication. This project, though demonstrated as a prototype, shows that deploying cloud based digital libraries in Nigerian higher institution will curb the challenges associated with traditional libraries.