Study On The Model And Assurance Measures Of Quality Of Service For Library Cloud

A Library Cloud is considered to be a library services platform based on the Cloud Computing. It is built on a sharing data model and delivered resources through the Internet. All of the resources including the infrastructures of the libraries, the systems softwares, bibliologicals, collections and holdings, cataloging data, vendors’ data, users’ knowledge bases, the reviews et al, are virtualized in the Library Cloud’s data center. It hosts those resources and services and displays by the interface of the Library web site in the form of SaaS and the Multi-tenancy model. All of the SaaS delivered by the Library Cloud is as the Library Cloud Service. By the view of a provider, the Library Cloud is a management platform or a system for library service, operating all of hardware/software resources and services to users. But it is a interface of the library web site to access every resource or service by the view of a user. Therefore, a Library Cloud is also referred to be a Library Cloud Platform, or a Library Cloud System, or a Library Cloud Web Site.The Library Cloud Services which based on the Cloud Computing architecture have the advantages of Cloud Computing, such as sharing the computing capabilities, acquiring the flexibility, saving the IT activities and the funding, making the data more efficient, and so on. On another hand, they also have challenges on the quality of services the same as the Cloud Computing, including service availability, secure, reliability, flexibility and confidentiality. At the same time, they are facing the fierce competition from the Internet Information Service Providers who offer the convenient internet information services and easy to use. User are trending to use those internet information services, rather than the Library services. Based on such situation, this paper put forward a model to evaluate the Quality of Service for the Library Cloud and tried to find some measures to ensure the users’ qualityof service in order to gain the satisfaction and loyalty of them which can make the libraries gain the competitive advantage.The paper combined methods of the theoretical research and the empirical research, including literature research, questionnaire survey, structural equation modeling and case analysis, etc. It first gave a brief introduction to the contents about the Cloud Computing and the Library Cloud Service in chapter1. Then it developed a model of quality of services for the Cloud Computing Services in chapter2and tested the model in chapter3. According to the model, chapter4tried to find some measures to ensure the quality of services. The contents and research processes in detail as follows:Chapter1introduced the substance of Cloud Computing, such as the definitions, the values, the architectures and the application instances. Then it brought Cloud Computing in the library field in the forms of tenancy solutions and library cloud solutions. One of the examples of the latter are OCLC WorldShare Management Services. It was used to illustrate the Library Cloud’s features, architectures and business processes.Exploratory Factor Analysis(EFA) was used in Chapter2to gather data in qualitative method and quantitative method in order to explore the main dimensions of the quality of services (shorted as QoS) for Libraries Cloud Services. Beginning with qualitative data gathering by means of focus group interviews, the research formed a preliminary scale of the questionnaire and moved on to quantitative method to gather data. EFA using principal component analysis with IBM SPSS statistics20.0was carried out repeatedly to determine factor structural among the proposed dimensions of QoS. Based on the results from the focus group and EFA of the survey data, a model including3second-order dimensions and6first-order dimensions was presented.Chapter3was focused on quantitative methods involving confirmatory factor analysis(CFA) using structural equation modeling(SEM) to support and refine the finding of chapter2, and examine the theorized QoS conceptual model through model testing using data obtained from a second survey. The model was empirically tested using SEM abilities of Smart PLS2.0. The path from the latent construct to the observed variable is assumed equivalent to a CFA model. The construct reliability criterion is reported using three criteria:Cronbach’s a, Composite Reliability(CR) values, and Average Variance Extracted(AVE). Those values exceeded the lowest accepted level. The measurement model and the structural model reflected by the indicators such as R2,Communality, Redundancy, Path Coefficients showed that the model was goodness-of-fit the data.Through EFA and CFA, the QoS for Library Cloud has been identified as a multilevel hierarchical construct, reflected in the three lifecycle processes of Library Cloud Services:the QoS provided by the provider before services delivered, the process quality among the service interaction and the user perceived QoS after service delivered.Based on the three dimensions of QoS for Library Cloud Services, chapter4sought the measures to ensure the QoS. It was suggested that the measures should take into account both providers side and users side. Only in providers side using technical means was unable to ensure the QoS. It needed to restrain the behaviors both providers and users in the means of management. Service Level Agreement(SLA) is the very management means which is a uniform standard to constraint the two sides behaviors and evaluate the QoS. It is clearly quantitative about the parameters and indicators of QoS, avoiding the ambiguous, promoting the QoS in the complex composite services environment of Library Cloud Services. So chapter4discussed the SLA for the Library Cloud Services and illustrated the SLA’s role in assuring the QoS with two Library Cloud Services instances:OCLC WMS SLA and ExLibris Alma SLA.