Cloud Labs: A Conversation about Implications for Libraries and Research Data Management (Invited Session)

At the Fall 2021 CNI Member Meeting, a team from Carnegie Mellon University and Emerald Cloud Lab gave a high-level presentation on cloud lab technology generally and on Carnegie Mellon’s strategic initiative to build a dedicated cloud lab to support its institutional community (see: https://youtu.be/j8bvZZzYGiw?si=fW1luSSVSmP3cbiJ). For those who did not see the presentation, the video is available on CNI’s website and is important background to this session. It is clear that the adoption of cloud lab technology at scale has broad implications for research data management practices and the role of the library in supporting these practices; it may also open up additional new roles for the library. We’ll have a conversation to explore the initial thinking about these issues at CMU. We will also speculate a bit about issues and requirements that will likely arise if we see significant adoption of this technology by multiple leading research institutions.