PROJECT PROPOSAL FOR LIBRARY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

BY

AMAHNDONG CLINTON ASHIEBEI

Clinton.amahndong@ictuniversity.edu.cm

BSC INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND NETWORKING

ICT UNIVERSITY CAMEROON

INTRODUCTION
Information technology has revolutionized the life of human beings and has made lives easier by the
various kinds of applications. In the light of the rapid changes with the use of information
technology, there are many tools, technologies and systems that have been produced and invented.

This project is concerned with developing a Library Management System for the ICT university in
other to make library management more efficient and easier to handle. The library management
system enables a fully automated library service. It has the ability to display the details of the books
available in various departments, the transactions of books and about the book holders.

The goal of this project is to provide simplicity as well as security and efficiency to the management
of the ICT university library and also reduce managing personnel in the library.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Many libraries are operated manually by a group of people. These people keep records regarding the
books and students(borrowers), check the books manually and keep records on issued books. All
these things have to be caried out manually and if the library is very large, proper record keeping will
become a major problem as manual record keeping has never been a reliable method because
people tend to forget things.

Other problems of the existing systems are:

 Fast report generation is not possible.

 Tracing a book is difficult.
 Information about issue/return of the books is not properly maintained.
 No central database can be created as information is not available in database.

LITERATURE REVIEW
A review of literature reveals that a computerized library management system will:

 Help to improve the library services.

 Help the Liberians with management information.
 Help the Liberians in reporting on the various operations of the library.
 Increase the rate at which task are completed accurately.
 Obviate the need to hire additional staff with increase demand for services.

Nwalo (2003) posited that a computerized library management system involves the use of a
computer application on computers in library.

A number of studies have reported on the application of information technology in libraries in

Nigeria. These reports include that of Lawani, Azubike and Ibekwe (1992), Mosuro (1996), Idowu and
Mabawonku (1999), Ogunleye (1997) Agboola (2000), and Ajala (2001) Nok (2006). All of these
studies have agreed that serious application of information technology to library processes started in
Nigerian libraries in the early 1990s.

LIBRARY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Library management System (LMS) provides a simple GUI (Graphical User Interface) for the Library
Staff to manage the functions of the library effectively. The Library Management System is designed
& developed for the receipt and Issuance of books in the library.
In a non-computerized Library management system, when a book is issued or returned, it is noted
down in a register after which data entry is done to update the status of the books. This process
takes some time and proper update of this information cannot be guaranteed. Anomalies in the
update process can cause loss of books. So, a more user-friendly interface which could update the
database instantly has a great demand in libraries, hence the need for this project.

SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM

The solution to the problem of the manual library management is to develop a computerized library
management system. Before developing the proposed system, there is need to identify;

a) The design of the proposed system

b) The main users of the library management system

c)The activities of the main users

a) The Design - The proposed system will be designed using Microsoft Visual Studio as the front end
and Microsoft access as the back end (the database used to store the user details & book details).
The size (in terms of memory) of the proposed system will be small.

b) The main users – The main users of the proposed system are the borrowers, the administrator
and the librarian.

c)Their activities – The activities of the main users of the proposed system are listed in a table
below.

Activities of the Borrower Activities of Activities of

the Administrator the librarian

 Search for a book  Add/Delete books Issue books

 Borrow a book Maintain the database Return books

 View user details View user details Add/delete books

 Modify user details Maintain user details

The proposed system will be able to perform all these activities.

SUMARY
The library management system needs to be computerized to reduce human errors and to increase
the efficiency. The proposed Library management system in this proposal will be a computerized
management system developed to maintain all the daily work of library. Library management
systems are designed to store all the information about books and members.

The main focus of this project is to lessen human effort and encourage efficient record keeping.
RECOMMENDATION/CONCLUSIONS
Based on the results of the findings gathered, I would like to recommend the following:

 The library considers the proposed Library system for them to increase the number of their
student or user.

 The proposed system be implemented by the library because it is more productive and more
capable of recording data in library.

 Future researchers should continue to improve the proposed system.

 Training must be conducted before the actual operation of the developed system.