Library Management System Essay Example for Free

Library Management System Essay In today’s modern age where computer has become a way of life, it is evident that a majority of country’s institution still do not adapt high technology. Particularly in some schools, library transactions are still done on paper. We all know that modern school libraries are operating at great pace striving to serve as many students as possible with the best of their abilities. But as the years rolled by, the number of study has grown and the manual method of managing student and book records is no longer practical. A Library Management System is a system that makes use of information technology to perform managerial objects. The main goal of a library management information system is to store, organize, share and retrieve vital information needed to perform daily operational functions of the library. St. Matthew Academy of Cavite does not have one. Since library has a very large number of books and large number of members, it is impossible for librarians to handle day to day activities manually. Therefore, a library management system is used to facilitate the tasks in the library. With growing population and high demand of students, St. Matthew Academy of Cavite is in need of such system. And so this is the reason why the proponents came up with the idea of developing the system. By means of obtaining good performance of such system for the library, the level of production and effectiveness of the library will progress. Therefore, this proposal was conducted to develop a system that will minimize all paper works and manual records keeping, thus allowing the librarians and staff ease in keeping track of student records, reducing waiting time and increasing the number of students served – a system that is well-organized, efficient and user-friendly. Statement of the Problem. We had observed that the St. Matthew Academy of Cavite Library does not have a secured system to protect their records and files. The study aims to answer the problem, â€Å"How will the proposed system assure security for the files and records of the library? † Some library cards and other files are misplaced or lost due to improper storage. The study seeks answer to the problem, â€Å"How will the proposed system keep track and record all the files and information? † According to the librarian, paper works and manual process consume a lot of time which causes the transactions to be slow and inaccurate. †How will the proposed system produce accurate and fast transactions? † Importance of the Study St. Matthew Academy of Cavite is located in Niog 1, Bacoor Cavite that offers elementary and high school courses owned by Mr Efren L. de Guzman(School director). In the School library, the processes are done manually. A borrower should have a library card; this will serve as library pass/identification to avail the privileges to each student of the school. The student may enter the book section and search for a book. After choosing a book, he/she will take it to the librarian. The librarian will get the catalogue at the back of the book and fill the details on it. The student must surrender his/her library card. Today, the kind of process they are using is no longer convenient. With establishments like St. Matthew Academy of Cavite, Library Management System is necessary. We are already in the phase wherein a lot of technological advances are taking place which makes the proposal very suitable. Through the implementation of the said system, better results and improvements will take place and it will mainly contribute to the progress of the establishment. The users are the people for whom the system is being built for. Therefore, the Library management system will help satisfy the requirements of the user. Especially now that we are in the modern age where technology has become part of our lives, the system is very appropriate to fulfill the ever-changing needs of users. The researchers are the one responsible for meeting the user requirements. The study certainly adds knowledge and improves the researchers’ skill in developing a functional system that would satisfy their clients. The study unleashes their ability to investigate and come up with a system that makes them more effective and productive researchers. For the future researchers, the Library management system works for small library establishment only. Thus, if the future researchers will find the system appealing, they can come up with new ideas and enhance the system for a more useful and efficient system which can be used for larger libraries. Objectives of the Study In general, the study aims to provide a better system for the SMAC library that would help the librarians to make their work easier. The system is created to replace the manual lending, returning of books. Specifically it aims: 1. To plan for a system that will lessen all paper works and manual procedures to make transactions fast, accurate and accessible. 2. To analyze the function and performance of the library management system, understand the user’s need for the system. 3. To design a user-friendly system that is secured and protected that will help the users understand the functions and flow of the system. 4. To implement a system that will help librarians to keep all the records and transaction manageable. Time and Place of Study The proposed study was conducted at St. Matthew Academy of Cavite, located at Niog 1, Bacoor, Cavite, in the year 2012. Scope and Limitation In general, the focus of the study is to provide a better system for the SMAC library. The implementation of the Library management system will provide solutions for the existing problems within the library. The Library management system is intended to manage the transactions going throughout the library. It will enable the user to operate all the records that are entered to the system. The system maintains the record of the books in the library, borrowing and returning process of the books in the library. It includes the information of books such as title of the book, name of author, the date it was published. The end user of the system is the librarian or the one in charge of the library, which take care of the transactions inside the library. Developments and effectiveness are to be established in this proposal. However, every study has its own limitation. The limitations of the system are the following: Module of Books The user is capable of adding, editing, and searching of book information. The members can search for book title, author or subject by keywords through the OPAC(Public user interface). The OPAC only displays result of the searched book. The members are not capable of editing any records. The user is not capable of deleting records because this is an inventory. Module of Members The user is capable of adding new members, editing, searching and updating member’s information. The user is not capable of deleting members in the database. Module of Borrowed Books This module includes data of books which are issued or borrowed. The user is capable of adding records about issuance of books. Module of Returned Books This module includes data of books which are returned. The user is capable of adding of records. Module of Unreturned books This module includes the record of all unreturned books. Module of Penalty This module includes data of fine on members for late return of books, damage of books or lost books. It does not include printing of receipt. Module of Transaction This Module includes the transactions of borrowing and returning of books, and maintaining records of the book details, member info, date borrowed, due date, the date returned and penalty, if any. Definition of Terms Visual Basic – a programming language created with the main purpose of teaching programmers and developers how to design and develop GUI. Database- a collection of data (information) on a specific topic stored in an organized manner. Record- all of the information listed for one particular item (person, place or thing) in the database file. Search/Find –an operation to locate a specific record(s) that satisfies a statement or statements of criteria. OPAC (Public Interface of User) or simply Library Catalog is a database of materials held by a library or group of libraries. Users search a library catalogprincipally to locate books and other material physically located at a library. Circulation- or library lending comprises the activities around the lending of library books and other material to users of a lending library. A circulation or lending department is one of the key departments of a library. Filipiniana- repository of materials regarding the Philippines either published within or outside the country, authored by a Filipino or foreign writers as long as it is about the Philippines. This section includes books in the different fields of endeavor. Reference – various books that are sources of information about different subjects. They include dictionaries, encyclopedias, manual, and other informational books. Most books in the Reference Section may not be taken out so that they are always available to those who need them. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Information System It has been a computer era. The computer revolution is greatly affecting the way human’s life. The task of the storage and retrieval for vest amount of information has been taken over almost entirely by computer system. The computer has made it possible to automate much of the information interchange and processing that constitute the nervous system of the society. The computer system that provides the automation is commonly called information system. It will be responsible for computer technology for long term impact on society especially in science like in the field of health and medicine, chemistry, mineral exploration, millitary tactics, finance, education, media and communications, economics, sports, transportation, photography and other related areas. The information storage and retrieval is an active area of computer to help related work both for hardware device and software system as it was stated, information storage and retrieval involves more than hardware devices and storage media alone. To make the physical equipment readily, usable it is necessary to operation associated with it are to add information and others. While many people are excited about all these uses of computer, many others are concerned about the problems like work displacement, invasion, privacy, and the personalization in business operatation. The advantages of a new technologyb are often obvious but the problemas that may arise are much more difficult to access. (Davis, 2005) Use Case Diagram A use case is a methodology used on system analysis to identify, clarify, and organize system requirements. The use case is made up of a set of possible sequences of interactions between systems and users in a particular environment and related to a particular goal. It consists of a group of elements that can be used together in a way that will have an effect larger than the sum of the separate elements combined should contain all system aactivities that have significance to the users. A use case can be thought of as a collection of possible scenarios related to a particular goal, indeed the use case and goal are sometimes considered to be synonymous. (Antoinette Michaella, 1999) Class Diagram A class diagram is an illustration of the relationships and source code dependencies among classes in the unified modeling language (UML). In this context, a class defines the methods and variables in an object which is a specific entity in a program or the unit of code representing that entity. Class diagrams are useful in all forms of object oriented programming (OOP). The concept is several years old but has been refined as OOP modeling pardigms have evolved. The classes are arranged in groups that share comon characteristics. A class diagram resembles a flowchart in which classes are portrayed in boxes. Each box having three rectangles inside. The top rectangle contains the name of the class; the middle rectangle contains the attributes of the class; the lower rectangle contains the methods, also called operations, of the class lines, which may have arrows at one or both ends, connect the boxes. These lines define the relationship, also called association, between the classes. (Francis Michael, 2001) Related Studies on the Proposed Study Saint Vincent High School Library System The objective of Saint Vincent High School Library System is to impelement a system to facilitate the borrowing of books in the school. The Library contributes to the quality of services offered in the academic community, making it an excellent place for study and research. The Library is responsive units that have adapted and changed substantially over the years. (Pomperada, 2011) El Segundo Unified School District Library System The School Libraries of the El Segundo Unified School District are deeply involved with the El Segundo Public Library. The Public Library shares the Automated Circulation and on-line Public Access Catalog System with the School Libraries. The School Libraries serve as branches of the El Segundo Public Library. This collaboration means the El Segundo Public Library Card is used at the School Libraries. Anyone visiting the Public Library and using the Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) can locate and request any book in any of the libraries. Using the Interlibrary loan system, books are shared between the school libraries and the Public Library. Books can also be pooled together to assist a teacher with a research assignment. UCV Library System The University of Cagayan Valley Library System is an important part of UCV instructions. These are the heart and brain centers of the University, and special place to do research and thorough study. The libraries provide each college with intellectual, up to date high tech resources to support its educational programs. (Del Rosario, 2008) Table 1 shows the comparison of local studies features with the features of the proposed system. |FEATURES |SVHS |ESUSD |UCV |SMAC | |Checking of penalties | | | | | |Viewing of records | | | | | |Updating of Records | | | | | |Adding of Members | | | | | |OPAC | | | | | Table 2. Comparison of Local Studies features with the Proposed Study Legend: SVHS- Saint Vincent High School ESUSD – El Segundo Unified School District UCV University of Cagayan Valley METHODOLOGY The Model chosen for the study is Waterfall Model. The following are the verification phases: Figure 1. Waterfall Model The Planning Phase, the researchers determine the nature and scope of the development. In this phase, the researcher gathered all the information about their process. The procedure was conducted by interviewing the librarian to learn the process of borrowing books from the library. The librarian provided sufficient and useful information on how the manual borrowing of books in the library is conducted. The system’s physical interface, data purpose, etc. , was reviewed by the researchers. The Analysis Phase, the researchers analyzed the user’s needs for the system. In this phase, the system shall be defined in more detail with regard to system inputs, processes, outputs and interfaces. The system shall be described in terms of the functions to be performed. The document for system testing was prepared in this phase. The Design Phase, describes how the proposed system will be built. It defines the specifications, plans, parameters, activities, processes. The researchers designed a well-structured GUI to make it appropriate for the users. It must be user-friendly and secured. The Testing Phase, a particular process or method for trying or assessing. The system needs to be evaluated and tested before it will be used in SMAC Library. A sequence of test was held by the proponents to emphasize all possible problems that may occur. The Implementation Phase, the carrying out, execution or practice of a design. It encompasses all the processes involved in getting new software or hardware operating properly in its environment, including installation, configuration and running, testing and making neccesary changes. The Maintenance Phase, the last phase of the system wherein all areas of operations and maintenace are performed. The system is being used and monitored to ensure that it meets the needs initially stated in the planning phase. Design Maintenance Implementation Testing Analysis Planning.