Library System Essay Example for Free

Library System Essay In progress countries, where the Computerized Library System is a mature technology, developments are the area of resource sharing and globalization of Information Access. In such a scenario, the role of the librarian is no longer to make available the most suitable books or editorial or facts accessible within the library but to seek out the information necessary by the user from any library. The recent advancement in Information Technologies and system has become the key concerns of librarian and libraries. Libraries need to develop their resources access, analyse the need of their users and seek to develop resources to meet this needs. As a learning and knowledge organization, schools should empower their libraries to develop the appropriate tools in coping with the growing library trends and standards. The Jesus is Lord Christian School’s Library System is a Manual System, which covers manual transactions inside the library, such as borrowing, returning, and recording of the books and the registration of the new borrowers. The system will help the librarian to closely monitor the condition of the library. This system is also design to speed up every transaction inside the library. The main objective of the proposed system is to increase the efficiency and security of record keeping of the school. The system will also generate reports that are needed in monitoring the library. The proposed system is design with security to protect sensitive files from unauthorized access. Only authorized users can have an access to confidential files. The security of files is achieved through the use of Username and Password for identification and authentication of the user. The proposed Computerized Library System of Jesus is Lord Christian School will improve and speed up library transactions. 1. 0 INTRODUCTION The Computerized Library System is an Integrated System that consists of library operating components such as Cataloguing, Searching, Adding, Editing, and Deleting books and periodicals information. Each component supports a user-friendly interface that makes it extremely accessible to librarians and students alike. The software is also design with portability in mind, so that it would be available to a wide variety of computer architecture. Library is a place where the collections of books are kept. A library operates routinely with known set of customer, it also operates on expectation. When the client walks into the library, we expect that they will get the material or information that they need. The library in return, expects that the client will return the items within the specified borrowing time. As always, the role of the library and librarians is to help manage the effective delivery of library services. This has been traditionally anchored on the management of the catalogue and physical collection. Librarians are trained to be expert in Information Searching, Selecting, and Organizing. Nowadays, in a highly technological society, human productivity is made more efficient through the development of the electronic gadgets and machine. The advent of such modernization in education, one way to globalize the process of research is to appreciate that technology is advancing in a dramatic increase. Now in our modern society, technology is the most important advancement which brings necessity to progress us along to the computerized world. These make man’s life easier and more convenient. 1. 2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 1. 2. 1 General problem How to design, develop, and implement a Computerized Library System for Jesus is Lord Christian School to lessen their time in tracking of records, storage of numerous paperwork’s and manual filing of forms. 1. 2. 2 Specific Problems * The current acquisition and cataloguing process of Jesus is Lord Christian School Library is time consuming and prone to errors due to the present manual operations. * The traditional use of pen and typriter for acquisition and cataloguing are prone to erasures. * The library reports and inventory are very tedious and it takes a month to be completed because it is manually done * The library reports and inventories are said to be tedious because of manual book counting, listing of new books, and Administrative reports. * The process of lending and returning of books user consumes minutes of manpower due to the manual tracking and processing of students, employee and book records. * The Jesus is Lord Christian School Library staffs manually perform the borrowing and returning of books, and it takes several minutes to complete a single process. * Tracking of overdue books is difficult and this prolongs the returning process as well as the imposing of penalties. * The calculation and imposing of imposing of penalties as well as tracking of overdue books are manually performed, this results to lack of books monitoring 1. 3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1. 3. 1 General Objective This study aims to design, develop, and implement a Computerized Library System for Jesus is Lord Christian School that will store information and track the records of books and its borrowers, and produced library reports and inventories of the school’s library. 1. 3. 2 Specific Objectives * To produce an efficient book acquisition process this will be useful during cataloguing. * To produce a means of tracking overdue books useful in imposing penalties whenever necessary. * To produce library reports and inventories like Administrative Reports that would be available whenever needed. * To be able to monitor all borrowed and returned books. * To be able to monitor the circulation of books. * To provide a facility that will handle library transactions efficiently and accurately. 1. 4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 1. 4. 1 The Librarians A Computerized Library System is a tool that can be used by the school librarian in storing and retrieving information such as the books information and the borrower’s information in order to make every transaction faster. A Computerized Library System can have a great help for the librarian of Jesus is Lord Christian School because the number of students enrolled there increases very year thus, the job of the librarian becomes more difficult and complicated because it is very hard for them to monitor huge number of students who want to borrow books. The study will help the librarian solve the problems regarding its transactions like the computing of penalties for the delinquent borrowers and maintaining of books in the library so that the job of the librarian will be lessened. 1. 4. 2 Students and Faculty Members This study will help the students and the faculty members in borrowing books because this system will provide them a categorization system so that they can search a specific book in the library in a much convenient way. 1. 4. 3 The School Administrator Our proposed system will generate reports needed by the school admin like the list of books in the library, list of delinquent borrowers, list of new books and list of damage books. 1. 4. 4 Assistant Librarian In case of librarian is not in the library, the assistant librarian can also access the proposed system. However, there are only certain process that the assistant library can operate. 1. 5 SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS The system will only focused on books and periodicals. It will not include the library budgets. The inventory of equipment and audio visual materials in order for the system to be concrete and specific. The proposed library system will not be networked in order to reduce complexity on the part of the proponent. The system will also include the File Maintenance of the books wherein they can add, edit, delete all the necessary information if needed. This will also help the librarian in the monitoring of books in the library because all the books information will be stored in a database. This will make it much easier for the librarian to update the books in the library. Back-up and Restoration of the database is also included in the system. We will provide a module that will back-up all the information in the database when the system is turn off and will restore if the main database is corrupted. In this process, the risk of losing some information in the library will be minimized. The calculation of penalties for overdue books is done with the use of an efficient books transaction process. The report generation such as readymade listings for manual book counting, listing of new books, discarded books and Administrative reports will be easily done. All of the information will be stored in the database so that the borrowing and returning of books can easily be monitored by the Librarian. The system will also provide the automatic computation of penalty for the delinquent borrowers depending on the number of days overdue, in this case the librarian does not need to compute penalty in a manual process and the possible wrong computation will be lessen. Generating of reports will also be provided by the system like the list of books in the library, list of new books, list of damaged books, and the list of delinquent borrower. The system will not include the purchasing of new books or any additional equipment in the library like desks, electric fan, chairs, book shelves and other materials. 2. 0 METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY (Software Engineering Paradigm) The Spiral Model The spiral model combines the idea of iterative development (prototyping) with the systematic, controlled aspects of the waterfall model. It allows for incremental releases of the product, or incremental refinement through each time around the spiral. The spiral model also explicitly includes risk management within software development. Identifying major risks, both technical and managerial, and determining how to lessen the risk helps keep the software development process under control. The spiral model is based on continuous refinement of key products for requirements definition and analysis, system and software design, and implementation. At each iteration around the cycle, the products are extensions of an earlier product. This model uses many of the same phases as the waterfall model, in essentially the same order, separated by planning, risk assessment, and the building of prototypes and simulations. Documents are produced when they are required, and the content reflects the information necessary at that point in the process. All documents will not be created at the beginning of the process, nor all at the end (hopefully). Like the product they define, the documents are works in progress. The idea is to have a continuous stream of products produced and available for user review. The spiral lifecycle model allows for elements of the product to be added in when they become available or known. This assures that there is no conflict with previous requirements and design. This method is consistent with approaches that have multiple software builds and releases and allows for making an orderly transition to a maintenance activity. Another positive aspect is that the spiral model forces early user involvement in the system development effort. For projects with heavy user interfacing, such as user application programs or instrument interface applications, such involvement is helpful. Starting at the center, each turn around the spiral goes through several task regions . * Determine the objectives, alternatives, and constraints on the new iteration. * Evaluate alternatives and identify and resolve risk issues. * Develop and verify the product for this iteration. * Plan the next iteration. Note that the requirements activity takes place in multiple sections and in multiple iterations, just as planning and risk analysis occur in multiple places. Final design, implementation, integration, and test occur in iteration 4. The spiral can be repeated multiple times for multiple builds. Using this method of development, some functionality can be delivered to the user faster than the waterfall method. The spiral method also helps manage risk and uncertainty by allowing multiple decision points and by explicitly admitting that all of anything cannot be known before the subsequent activity starts 3. 0 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Computerized Library System in the Philippines have integrated library system namely, UP Don Bosco Technical College (develop in house), Ateneo Professional Schools (develop in house). Thomas Jefferson Cultural Center (Date Trek), International Institute (Iunopac), Asian Development Bank (VTLS), International Rice Research integrated use micro-CDs/ISIS, INMAGIC or BIBASE to create their electronic catalogs and/or indexes and produce catalog/cards or book catalog indexes. The theological libraries also use BIBASE for their circulation system. UP Computerized Library System is develop in aiming to produce a full pledge computerized library system that supports all necessary components to suit library tasks. Each components work conjunction with each other to produce an automated library system. The team aims to provide a really good GUI for ease of access on part of the user. The proposed system will cover the monitoring of books and borrowers. Computing penalty for overdue available generating a card catalog for searching a particular books, its title, subject and author. The difference of this system to our proposed system is we will convert the current system of the said school from manual system into computerized library system for faster searching of records. The library functions of the benefits of the students, teachers as if supply the patrons with a wealth of information, found in books, periodic and electronic sources, assistance is given with teams paper’s factual information. Leisure reading materials and any other library related activities. This chapter reviews literature and studies that the researchers considered relevant to the present study. The school library is one of the most common studied division of educational institutions. Not a few specialist in the teaching enterprise have devoted their attention and focus their inquiry into the system management and problems of the library as a learning resource center. There is the only need to gear up current awareness services, but also to initiate new services with the assistance the new services technologies, so that total library operation and service can be modernized. There remains much to be done as the image of the university libraries directly linked with the quality of services it provide to its rising users of device requirements. [FEST 1994]. In completion of the study, the proponents made use of different books. They also made use of the response of the direct inquiries from interviews. These are big factors in the generation of ideas. Library classifications have been particularly defined as systematic arrangement by subjects of books and other material on shelves and catalogue and index entries and manner which is most useful for those who read or who seek definite piece of information. University of Santo Tomas can be considered as the oldest university in the country. The first seeds were planted when the founders, Fr. Miguel de Benavides and Fr. Diego Soria, donated their private collections. Through the history of the university other Dominicans contributed books that they thought were indispensable in education for the priesthood. This explains why the oldest books in the collections are related in the philosophy, theology or law. As new faculties were opened in the university books were added. All these constitute a precious collection of rare books unique in the Philippines. The library was house at the university quarters in the old city of Intramuros for three hundred years. When the university expandedits campus outside the walls, the collection were also transferred. When the main building constructed, the library was allotted of room at ground floor. Its collection increased with the opening of new courses, the library grew to occuy one whole wing of the ground floor of this building and other rooms in the different building [JOAQ 2004]. In 1985, the long waited dream of the exclusive building for the library finally materialized, and on October 29, 1989 the UST Central Library Buildings was inaugurated. [JOAQ 2004]. Until 1985 the books in the library were classified according to the old method of classification called the fixed system. In 1927, the university adopted another method classification known as the Dewey Decimal System. 4. 0 DESCRIPTION OF THE CURRENT SYSTEM The Jesus is Lord Christian School uses manual type of operation in managing library transactions. Several procedures are included in handling all the necessary information of books, students, faculty member as well as the card catalogue. Library transactions like borrowing, returning, cataloguing and reserving are being done manually by the librarian of staff. The librarian uses pen and library master card file in recording all the transactions with regards to the books concern. Usually the library card for the faculty and none teaching staff is bigger compared to that of students and it is kept inside the library. In borrowing of books the library practices open shelves policy. Most of the time the student/faculty come in the library to conduct research and reading, if the said clients wants to borrow the books, they will ask the librarian if they can borrow the books. For students, they will present their library card to the librarian, and then the librarian will record the compulsory information needed like the due date into the library card. The student will sign in the books card. On borrowing, the library practiced a one to three policy. The Students as well as The Faculty can only be allowed to borrow three books at a time. In returning, the students or even the faculty will present the books borrowed, then the librarian will look the master card file of the students and sign it. If the books is returned on its due date, the library card will be simply returned to the students. In case the book was not returned on time, the students will be charged a fine of five pesos per day. The amount of penalty depends on the number of days the student failed to return the books. In the case of faculty and staff, they will simply present the books to the librarian, then the librarian will look for the library card of the faculty and staff in the faculty and staff card file and sign on it. The faculty and staff are exempted from the penalty.