This session focuses on the use of Amazon's innovative web services (AWS) in libraries. The presentation is framed as an argument that embracing this suite of services from Amazon, increasingly the core of its business, will help librarians understand Amazon to be more of a savior than a threat to academic libraries, as it is often understood. Included are demonstrations of how libraries can leverage the relatively affordable offerings of Amazon Web Services, including S3, Glacier storage, EC2 web servers, to solve the challenges libraries face in the digital age. The argument is based on the experience of the Pitts Theology Library’s implementation of AWS for web development, archival storage, and digital information literacy instruction. The hands-on session will show librarians how AWS can help them not only offload information technology needs, but to drive down costs, increase the flexibility of their digital assets, and foster their on-staff skills of software development.
