Experiment Number 2 AIM: Problem Statement for Library Management System.

Theory:

Scenario:

Consider a library database with the following transactions: 1. Check out a copy of a book / Return a copy of a book; 2. Add a copy of a book to / Remove a copy of a book from the library; 3. Get the list of books by a particular author or in a particular subject area; 4. Find out the list of books currently checked out by a particular borrower; 5. Find out what borrower last checked out a particular copy of a book. There are two types of users: staff users and ordinary borrowers. Transactions 1, 2, 4 and 5 are restricted to staff users, except that ordinary borrowers can perform transaction 4 to find out the list of books currently borrowed by themselves. The database must also satisfy the following constraints: 1. All copies in the library must be available for checkout or be checked out. 2. No copy of the book may be both available and checked out at the same time. 3. A borrower may not have more than a predefined number of books checked out at one time. 4. A borrower may not checkout more than one copy of a book

User Requirements:

Provide facilities for book issue and return. Librarian should be able to search for a book. If the member wants a book, which is not in the library, the librarian should be allowed to place an order for the book. Provide security.

Problem Statement:

A member visits the library to return the existing book/VCD/DVD and obtain another one. The member hands the book over to the librarian and asks for a particular book, based on the book/VCD/DVD title/author, name/publisher, name/price/year of publication. The user may be able to locate the book from their memory, and issue the same to the member. Alternatively, the librarian may need to search for the book in its library database. The book may be present in the library, or it may be issued to another member, or it may not be available at all. Accordingly, the member is informed, and if appropriate, the book is issued to the member. If the book is not available in the library at all, then the librarian should be able to place an order for the same to a remote book server. This order may subsequently be tracked. The system should provide for user authentication.

Current System:
The current, existing system is a manual system where librarian have to process every thing manually from organizing the books and place them in the right place write shelf to retrieve them for the library visitors and that is overwhelming consuming process

Problems with Current System:

Determining the exact book that the user wants and where it resides in the library. Wasting time looking for the book in the wrong location. Searching for the wrong title and ending with similar titles from different authors. Locating wrong books in the wrong location

Proposed/Future System:
The suggested system automates the maintenance work, and keeps records, history and transactions organized. It also registers granting or receiving of books from a member or a supplier.

CONCLUSION:
Thus, we have outlined the requirement of the user from a Library Management System. The current system where the librarian has to track all records, is to be replaced with an automated, hence reducing the repetitive work of the librarian and to maintain an archive of daily transactions.