THE BOOK MASTER FILE: Contains the details of the book. The author’s name, publisher’s name, edition, source, series, the call number (tells in which category the book is located), the ISBN number (international standard book number), the cost of each book and the total cost of the entire book, date of the arrival of the book is written, date of purchase, accession date are written.. When the new books are bought under the demand of the member the stock file is updated.
SUPPLIER FILE: Contains the details of the supplier of the books bought. The address, the telephone number and the name of the supplier is written. As the demand of the members rises the new books are bought. To meet the demands of the member.
THE BORROWING SYSTEM
Equipments: Issuing tray: wooden trays for filling the books ticket and readers card, this contains thirty-one pockets. Each representing one day. When ever a book is borrowed the book card is put inside the issuing tray in that pocket when the book has to be returned.
The book card contains the call number which determines the location of the book, the author’s or publisher’s name, and the date of issuing the name of the member, ISBN number of book and members ID number.
Stationary: the readers card, book card which remains in each book pocket made up of card board until the book is borrowed.
PROCESS
Books out:
- There is a stamp for the blains library book which indicates that it is a book of this library
- When a member wants to borrow a book he takes out the book card from the pocket of the book he manually writes his name, the issuing date and his ID number. The librarian checks his ID # by checking the member’s master file.
- The Books card is then tucked into the reader’s card. If the member has borrowed more then three books than he is not allowed to borrow the book.
- Book card in the reader’s card filed in the tray, under the due date for return.
DIAGRAM ILLUSTRATING THIS PROCESS
Books in:
- Books returned on the due date. Due date checked, book card sought under correct date from the issuing tray, retrieved with readers card reads card returns
- Book card replaced in book’s pocket.
- Books with loose pages, damaged spines e.t.c are put aside for the possible repair/rebinding.
- If the member dose not returns the book on time after two days of wait telephone call is made by looking through the the readers card.
- After a wait for one weeks. if he dose not still return the book then the librarian sends a warning notice and in the members status he is written late returner.
- And after a wait for two weeks if the book still not returned then membership is cancelled
- There is no penalty or fine charged against him however in the members status the member is black listed..
DATA FLOW DIAGRAM REPRESENTING THE ABOVE PROCESS
ORDER TO BUY THE BOOKS FOR THE LIBRARY
DESCIRPTION OF THE TASK
- The Balin City Library order book as the demand of member for books increases.
- However all orders and details are recorded on paper and not every need is catered for on the forms given.
INPUT
- When the members demand for the book the librarian writes the book on a sheet of paper.
- The librarian calls the book suppliers to order the books.
- The name of the publisher, order numbers, the prices of individual transactions, the number of books being ordered in that shipment and the date of purchase is input into the order sheet.
- She goes about doing this by looking for the book in mention on the various book lists she has of different publishers and then writing in the order sheet the name of the supplier who sell the book, the name of the book and the price. When the sheet has been filled she then sends it off and keeps a copy of it for her.
PROCESS
- When the librarian has input all the data she has got she then starts to work out the overall prices of the goods.
- The orders have got to be sent through to the supplier of the books through an order sheet, which she has got.
- There is a certain amount of research done in the way of seeing what are the more favoured genres in the school and then choosing more books of this type for the pupils to read.
OUTPUT
- The output shown is the date each shipment is received in the Blain City Library, the overall price, a checklist of each order to cross off received ones, and the resultant balance after the transaction has gone through.
- She then calculates the total costs of the books received when an order comes through she can then write down the date received and cross that order off the check list.
DATA FLOW DIAGRAM REPRESENT THE ABOVE PROCESS
SAMMARY OF THE DIAGRAM
This diagram shows the current system of the library to buy books, if a member wanted a book that the library didn’t have then the librarian could put that certain book in the next stock list of books sent off to the supplier of the books.
So what would happen is that the pupil or teacher would ask the librarian if she could order a certain book, the librarian would then go and check firstly if the book is in the library in the books master file. Then she would go and write out the order in the order stock sheet and send off the order. After the book has arrived librarian will calculate the total money and will cut the book from the stock list. The stock file and the Books Master File are updated. E.g. more barcodes of the book is written
- There should be use of paper and pencils extensively and there should be vast amount of paper and pencils.
- Provide skillful workers for error free library system
PROBLEMS
- It is very much time consuming. Updating file during the lending of the book is very time consuming
- Error may arise the librarian may put the book card in the wrong pocket of the issuing tray.
- Searching for particular item is very arduous.
- Large amount of information can get lost
- Incorrect entry is difficult to find. The reader’s card placed in wrong issuing tray pocket. Some times the librarian puts the reader’s card in the wrong issuing tray pocket. So the member and the librarian have to face difficulty.
- There is a lot of paper used. This increases the expenses of the company.
- At the present system any one can come in side the library and intelligently steal a book when the library is opened. With this system it is difficult to differentiate between a member of the library or any one else
- The files can be easily lost. Important paper might be considered as scrap and be disposed of. This would be very dangerous to the outlet.
- In restocking, the librarian has to write a lot of letters to each of the suppliers which is time consuming and irritating.
- Cards have to be prepared by the librarian manually for each of the book which is tiring.
- Problem in keeping the files organized.
- This system is very slow. As it works manually all the file have to updated manully.
- Time consuming. Searching for a particular item is very strenuous.
- Error prone. Human error may arise while keep the record of the member or book master file..
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Large storage spaces are needed for the numerous files, documents and registers is insufficient.
- There is no sense of responsibility. The students and teachers do not give the issued book on time.
- It is difficult to keep all records up-to-date. The files contain out of date information and the progress of the system is difficult to analyze. Stock related
- problems like over borrowing and under borrowing often arise
- Too many transactions and borrowing are difficult to record and Human errors are often made while data entry
- Problems related to data storage often arise.
- New employees take a lot of time in understanding the manual system as the procedures of the existing system are complex and difficult to comprehend and often make mistakes.
- There is a lot of wastage of man power and stationary as too much paper work is involved
NATURE OF THE PROBLEMS
The reason for these problems is the following:
- Complex procedures are preformed manually
- Lack of coordination among the various system components
- Un- educated library assistant
- Loss of information due to the manual handling of the files.
- Lack of coordination amongst the library assistance.
- New employees take a lot of time in understanding the manual system as the procedures of the existing system are complex and difficult to comprehend.
- Many forms are inadequate. They have important entries missing and several unnecessary entries are present
- The major workload is on the shoulders of a few employees which make them exhausted and frustrated. This increases the chances of making errors
- Complex procedure are preformed manually
- Loss of information by manual handling of the files.
SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEMS
- There should be action taken or fine given to those who do not return the book on time.
- The library system can employ more clerks in the administration.
- The branch can introduce a system where credit cards and cheques can be accepted as methods of payment.
- The branch can organize back up systems so that data has more security.
- The librarian can hire a person to regularly back up data onto disk and maintain the data safely.
- The librarian can hire a software house to build a program to handle all the files.
- There should be cataloging in all the books. This contains a complete description of the book the number of pages, author’s name, and the publisher’s name everything, in shirt, is written in this tag. This helps the borrower to know about the book and aid him to borrow it. The librarian dose not has to tell about the book and hence time is saved.
- Sense of responsibility should be developed amongst the students and the teachers.
- The library should be changed to computerized, in order to keep the library system well- maintained and well-organized.
- To prevent the steeling of the books some sort of door where entry and excite is controlled either by swipe card, or smart card or a smart key would be useful. Access will then be only granted to those members with appropriate pass.
EVALUATION OF THE CURRENT SYSTEM
After a detail inspection and analysis of the current system, I found out that there are several flows in the system. In the old system one dose not have to be trained. In this system it is cumbersome to search for particular item. It is time consuming to keep the file up to date. Large amount of storage spaces is required and there are chances for important documents and files to get lost. And there is always danger for the books to be stole.
However, this system is cheap in the senses that there are no running costs. Apart from this man power is readily available. Due to the difficulty faced by the librarian a computerized system should be develop to keep all the files and documents up to date and organised.
CHAPTER III
PROPOSED
SYSTEM
OBJECTIVES OF THE PURPOSED SYSTEM
- Speeding up of the library lending system.
- A greatly improve service: the information about the book, the borrower of the books and the reservations should be handled efficiently.
- The member should have access to the library 24-hours
- There should be a system designed which will instantly show that the book is about to be steeled from the library.
- The system will carry out mundane routines automatically. This will save time.
- Streamlining the system through the elimination of unnecessary or duplicated steps.
- Reducing errors in the input through changes of the forms and display screens
- Reducing redundant output
- Reducing redundant storage
- Improving the borrower’s service.
- Increasing the library assistant’s morale.
- Supporting the competitive strategy of the library.
- Improving the lending system so that the books and service are borrowed efficiently and effectively.
- Unlimited access to appropriate library details via the computer network.
- Access to the library information 24 hours per day.
- Easier searching of information
- E-mail can be used to communicate with the librarian
- E-mail can be used to flag themembers when the books are available
- CD-ROM, internet and external-database searches will add to the considerable arsenal of available methods of search.
DISCRIPTION OF OTHER POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS AND THEIR EVALUATION
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Employ more employees. The work will be divided among the employee. Few files are dealt with each employ errors will be reduced and frustration at the time of less workers will get slow but this system is very expensive.
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Extra storage space so that more files and documents can be stored. Expansion of the library is possible however; searching for particular item is very much time consuming and arduous. It is really exhausting to keep the files organized.
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Replacing the system to a computerized one. This will help in keeping the file up-to-date, organized and will consume less time for the user. However this system is expensive in the senses the there is running cost the electricity bill is included to it.
- Spread sheet package can be used for the calculation purposes. But it is not customizable.
- Copy of the records, files and documents can be made and can be stored in the safe places.
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The files can be arranged in alphabetical order according to the student’s name. This will make the search easier but will not eliminate the problem of occupying space and searching for a particular item is time consuming.
CHAPTER II
DESIGN PHASE
SECIFICATION
General Criteria:
- The system must be easy to use
- The owner is computer literate but it would be more preferable for her if she had a straight-forward system that will cause little problem for her
- The program should be easy to install
Specific Criteria:
- The computer must have validation checks for things like spelling errors.
- It must be able to calculate the additions and expenditure of the library budget
- There should be formulas in the system that can be used by the librarian for working out budget calculations.
Specification:
- It will be a spreadsheet on Microsoft Excel 97
- It will deal with maths formulas
- There may be problems if I design any of it at home as I have got Microsoft Excel XP
- The system has to be clear and easy to use.
- I should not have to keep going to the library because the librarian doesn’t understand a certain part of it. That would show that the system is too complex
- The ultimate aim is to make sure that the program will calculate the income and expenditure of the library.
SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS:
- Spreadsheet on Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft world
- Set up files for installation
- Windows XP/2000/NT
- Windows 95/98/ME
Microsoft Access
MS Access is a Windows based database system. I have chosen to design my database, forms and hence, the whole software with the help of MS Access because of the following reasons:
- It provides tools which are extremely easy to use. Filtering, sorting, querying, and form creation are fairly simple tasks, especially when using the many toolbars and wizards provided with Microsoft Access.
- The Microsoft Access one file system provides a simple way to make backups. Instead of backing up several to hundreds of data files, only one single file needs to be backed up. Depending on the size of your database and location of your backup medium, this can be as easy as copying and pasting the file to another drive.
- It is cheaply and easily available in the market.
- The retail outlet has enough resources to use the system.
- The employees working in the outlet have some technical knowledge of using MS Access as well.
MINIMUM HARDWARE REQUREMENTS:
- Mouse
- Keyboard containing 109 keys
- Laser printers
- CD-ROM
- Pentium-1 45 Hz
- 109 keys key
- Bubble jet printer
- 14” Monitor
- 32 Meg ram
- Hard disk 4GB
MAXIMUM REQUIREMENTS
- Laser printer
- 8 Gigabyte hard drive
- Pentium 2
- Bubble jet printer
- 3½ floppy
- 14” Monitor
►Keyboard
It is a keypad device with buttons or keys that can be used to enter data into a computer. It can also be used to enter commands. It is one of the fundamental pieces of personal computer (PC) hardware which each and every computer must have.
► Mouse
It is also an input device designed to fit under the palm of a hand while it is being moved around on a table or mat. It is around the size of a human palm and very easy to use. Moving the mouse produces movements of a cursor or a pointer on the monitor screen. It is provided with one, two or three buttons.
Since the software uses a graphical user interface, the mouse can be used to point to the appropriate option for selection by clicking. It is a very user friendly device and has the ability to perform various functions quickly such as opening a program or file and does not require the user to memorize a commands, like those used in a text-based environment
►Monitor
It is a device connected to a computer that displays information on a screen. Modern computer monitors can display a wide variety of information, including icons (pictures representing commands), photographs, computer rendered graphics, video, animations and most importantly data entered into the computer. Therefore, it allows us to visually check if the data entered into the computer is correct before processing. Also, all data entry forms, documents, files etc. are displayed with the help of a monitor. It shows us how the data would look in a hardcopy, before printing. For the use of a computer a monitor is needed, so the monitor is a vital part of a computer.
►Printer
It is a computer peripheral that puts text or a computer-generated image on paper or on another medium, such as a transparency. A considerable volume of office computer output is via the printer.
It produces the hard copy of the document which is to be printed like monthly sales reports, letters etc.
►Central processing unit (CPU)
The CPU of a computer is the main part of a computer system. It contains the processor, the main store and various circuits needed to communicate with devices outside it. This part is responsible for logical and arithmetical calculations, execution of programs and processing the data entered.
►Hard drive
It is a computers main storage media device, also called a hard disk drive, HD, or HDD. A hard drive consists of one or more s inside of an air sealed casing and it is a very important part of a computer system. Hard drives are capable of storing very large quantities of data and provide fast access to it. It is the hard drive which contains the entire database of suppliers, members, goods for sale etc.
►RAM:
►Floppy Drive
►CD-Rom
DATA INPUT AND OUTPUT FORMS
MEMBER FORM: This form contains all the relevant details of the member of the Blain City Library. This form is used whenever the member borrows a book. The amount of the book borrowed is updated in the limit of borrowing field. This form is also used when the member dose not return the book on time so that the librarian can call the member to infor him/her for the return of book.
ISSUE FORM: used when ever the member borrows a book
RETURN QUERY SUB FORM
BOOK RETUNED
Book Form: This form includes all the relevant detail of book in the library.
RETURN FORM
FILES
ISSUE DATE:
MEMBER MASTER FILE
EXPLANATION FOR DATA TYPE
NUMBER: used to input numerical data for example telephone number or numerical calculations.
TEXT: used to input alphabetical as well as numerical data. For example name.
MEMO: used to input alphabetical as well as numerical data as much desired there is no limitation in the field size. For example address or Members request.
DATE/TIME: used to input date and time value. For example Date of Issue.
AUTONUMBER: A unique sequential (incremented by 1) number or random number assigned by Microsoft Access whenever a new record is added to a table. AutoNumber fields can't be updated. For example Member ID
BYTE: Used to input numbers without decimal or fraction.
CURRENCY: Used to input Currency values and numeric data used in mathematical calculations involving data with one to four decimal places. For Example: $4.00.
SHORT DATE: First then the day and than the year. For example: Month/day/year represents the month
EXPLANATION FOR FIELD SIZE
INTEGER: Stores numbers from –32,768 to 32,767 (no fractions).
LONG INTEGER: Stores numbers from –2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647 (no fractions).
BYTE: Stores numbers from 0 to 255 (no fractions).
50 CHARACTERS: Limited to only 50 characters.
40 CHARACTERS: Limited to only 40 characters.
20 CHERECTERS: Limited to only 20 characters.
RELASHONSHIPS
In the above relationship the primary key of book master file, Book ID is related with the Book ID of the issue file in one-to-many relationship and the primary key of the member master file, member ID is related with the member ID in the issue file in one –to-many-relationship
IMPLEMENTATION
PHASE
GENERAL OBJECTIVES
A GREATLY IMPROVED SERVICE: Information ought to be instantly available regarding what resources such as books can be borrowed, who has which resource, and reservations should be handled efficiently. When a book is issued by the member the issue form is opened from the main form.
REAL-TIME SYSTEM: When a book or other resources is returned it should be instantly available to be borrowed again, unlike the old manual system where delays of up to day or even longer used to be the norm.
BETTER STOCK SECURITY: The system should be able to have total control over all the aspects of the issuing of books and other resources. It should exclude blacklisted borrowers, be able to manage the fines system, and be able to provide accounting facilities and statistics regarding many different aspects of the use, abuse and financial management of the system.
BETTER PHYSICAL SECURITY: The system should provide warning if books or other resources are about to be stolen from the library, it should only allow access to members with appropriate authority at specified time of the day and night, and at specified days and weeks during the year.
TIME SAVING: The computer system should carry out mundane routines automatically. This will release members so that they can spend more time doing their other daily transactions.
A more-polished image: the image of the library should be considerably enhanced by the increase efficiency of the library.
ONLINE TRASACTION: Students should access to information 24 hours a day from any suitable terminal in library, or via a modem from outside the library. Information from other sources such as CD-Rom and the internet should be available via the network and telephone system if possible.
