Chapter 1 RESEARCH DESIGN

Introduction Nowadays, the Information Age, a blend of dramatic, sociological, political, economical, and technological factors are at play to bring about fundamental and irrevocable changes in the entire social system. The scope of these transformations is global. This point of the time, economic power of nations is going to be a function of information technology. It is imagined that IT industry is going to be a greater industry by the year 2005 AD. Recent technological advancements like the internet have diluted the geographical, physical, political and even sociological boundaries. Even though all countries will be competing on a level playing field, the success would be determined by inputs from and to the information technology industry. With rapidly changing technologies and costs, planning for the management of each project over the time becomes difficult. As a result, much digitized works today undertake in pilot projects that allow institutions to learn by doing and learn for each other.

Rationale of the Study Teachers are not only the builders of youngs brain but, also the library. The library contributes a great impact on the students mentality which paves the way in building their

young minds and prepares these students to face their future; they need the library as their source of information. Contemporary era has greatly been affected by fast-paced innovation of technology. Parallel to this is mans desire to make his of living easier. The combination of these two has become the very reason for the computer to appear in the scene. Man uses invention as an aid to answer some of his problems and eventually introduces a new and better way of resolving them. The Library of Mactan National high School encountered shortcomings related to its growth and development. Hence, it significantly needed an automation of its system as it served access to information and resources. The problem encountered by the library personnel who are directly involved in processing its transactions and by its book borrowers and researchers encouraged the researchers to conduct a study.

Description of the Current System From the current system that is being used in Mactan National High School have encountered the different situation in which it gives a problem to the student. Like slow service rendered to the borrowers, lost of books and borrowers lists that lead to erroneous processing, late and inaccurate submission of reports and lost tracking of books and borrowers.

Description of the Proposed System Library System is a system where librarian can easily render services to the borrowers and borrowers can easily access the service rendered by the librarian. It is being proposed for the welfare of the library and as well as its librarian and borrowers. This system is hassle free for the librarian because they would have faster rendering of service, they would easily trace lost of books and the borrowers lists, the librarian would be able to identify the availability of books, it could be easy for them to mark out the borrowers that submits the book at the inaccurate schedule and they could easily tracks the lost of books.

Theoretical Background The ALA Glossary of Library and information Science defines library as: a collection of material organized to provide physical, bibliographical, and intellectual access to a target group with a staff that is trained to provide services and programs related to the information needs of the target group. (Heartsill Young (ed.Chicago; ALA, 1993)). The essence of the Library System lies in the fact that the system is the solution. The basic premise behind this approach is that looking closely at what is presently being done in the library and how it is being done can increase the productivity of any library. This may seem simplistic, but effects can be dramatic in any technical services area. Automated Library system is not a new term for systems developers. It is first tried and introduced in the latter part of the 1960s when EDP (Electronic Data Processing) was first develop and put into use. Early systems were mainframe-based and batch-oriented usually

supporting only the generation of flat lists (e.g. printed catalogs and recent acquisitions list). Punch cards were the primary input and update mechanism for databases that were stored on 4track tape. Later, system implemented with the mini-computer was developed. Since then, Automated Library System came into use.(http://www.lib.ni009.edu/oasis/ils/report.html, January 9, 2012) Prusak and Walker (2000), claims that the library is a source of information. It is a data (numeric and text) that is organized and imbued with purpose or intelligence resulting from the assembly, analysis or summary of data into a meaningful form. (Source: http://www.google.com) According to William Oldfield Ontario (2001), the library department of the University of Waterloo discovered a backlog of books in the spring of 1978 after it implemented a revision of this library and started using computerized-based library monitoring. In the study of Ariel P. Tan, et al., who conducted their study entitled Book monitoring System of Basak Elementary School, in automating a manual system, the major problems that the current system had been encountered will be eliminated. The system will do task of what was once very unreliable record of books and borrowers with the ease and reliability of every use. The system provides effective and reliable information. It will give the school a better library organization and it will give them a reliable record of borrowers and the librarian can easily track what book the borrower had borrowed. The school could also check what available books they had just in a minute. The system can be maintained without any hassles for it can run on a standalone computer with its proper required hardware and software specification. The system is userfriendly for it is very easy to use and to understand. (Source: Unpublished material Asian College of Technology)

In automating a manual system, the major system that the current system had encountered will be eliminated. The system will do task of what was once very unreliable record of books and borrowers with ease and reliability of every use. The system provides effective and reliable information. It will give the school a better library organization and it will give them reliable records of borrowers and the librarian can easily track what book the borrower had borrowed. The school could also check what available book they had in just a minute. The system can be maintained without any hassles for it can run on a stand-alone computer with its proper required hardware and software specification. The system is user-friendly for it is easy to understand. (Unpublished material: Tan, et.al, (2004). Book Monitoring system of Basak national High School. Unpublished manuscript, Asian College of Technology) Information System is a system that can either be automated or manual, comprises people, machines, and/or methods organized to collect, process, transmit, and disseminate data that represent user information. It is interconnected set of information resources under the same direct management control that shares common functionality. It normally includes hardware, software, information, data applications, communication, and people.(http://wiki/Information_System.html, January 9, 2012)