Developing a Comprehensive Library Management System for Tamale Polytechnic

International Journal of Science and Engineering Applications
Volume 5 Issue 5, 2016, ISSN-2319-7560 (Online)
www.ijsea.com 250
Developing a Comprehensive Library Management
System for Tamale Polytechnic
Abukari Abdul Aziz Danaa
Dept. of Computer Science
Tamale Polytechnic
Tamale, Ghana.
Mumin Diyawu
Dept. of Computer Science
Tamale Polytechnic
Tamale, Ghana.
Abstract: The numerous problems of borrowing and returning books and maintaining comprehensive user profiles in the Tamale
Polytechnic’s library using the current manual system is seriously affecting the overall productivity of the facility. The impact of
which is the poor and inefficient delivery of service to members. Since issuing of books is done by several librarians, details of which
librarian issued or received a borrowed book is always not accurate and can easily be manipulated by individuals with their personal
interests. A successful solution would be a computerized System for monitoring all transactions, members, user accounts, keep proper
records of login details of users as well as effective generation of reports. All transactions that occur within the library are recorded
automatically. It also has a fine and ad-hoc report generation mechanisms.
Keywords: successful; computerised; automatically; problems; transactions
1. INTRODUCTION
The proposed System is automated for managing the activities
of the Tamale Polytechnic library. It is a secured system where
only authenticated users are allowed access into it using a
password protection mechanism. If a user fails to login
successfully after three attempts, that particular user’s account
is locked. It is only the administrator who can unlock that user.
Another significant security feature about the system is its
ability to automatically record the date and time a particular
user logs in and out the system. The system keeps records of all
media and members of the library. All transactions that occur
in the library are recorded automatically. It also has a fine
generation mechanism as well as ad-hoc report generation
feature.
2. OBJECTIVES OF THE PROPOSED
SYSTEM
The proposed System is automated for managing the activities
of the polytechnic library. Such system must be very secured
whereby the software can be accessed only by the
authenticated user using the password protection
mechanisms.[1] If a user fails to login after three attempts, that
particular user’s account is locked. It is only the administrator
who can unlock that user. Another significant security feature
about the system is its ability to automatically record the date
and time a particular user logs in and out the system.
Figure 1 Objectives of the proposed system
3. BASIC THEORY
3.1 Programming Language Used
The project employed Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET) which is
an object-oriented programming language which is a
transformation of the classic Visual Basic (VB) developed on
the .NET Framework. The .NET Framework is software that
runs primarily on Microsoft Windows.[2] It includes a large
library and supports each language using codes written in other
languages.

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3.2 SQL Server 2005
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is the database backend for the
library Management system. It includes native support for
handling XML and relational data. For this reason, it defines an
xml data type that could be used either as a data type in
database columns or literals in queries.[4] Columns in XML
can be associated with XSD schemas; data in XML is being
stored is authenticated against the schema.
4. SYSTEM DESIGN
4.1 Analysis of Existing Project
Management System
Currently, almost all transactions in the Tamale Polytechnic
library system is done manually.
Main features of the current system are:
 Large volume of books and student’s data are
maintained in the form of registers.
 Issue Procedure: A Student can be issued three (3)
books at a time using the allotted issue cards to him.
The librarian takes off the book card from the book
in which all the details of the book are written. He
attaches the book card with the issue card of the
student and places it in the record column.
It is to be noted that the issue card has to be placed in
the sorted fashion, sorted in columns by class (i.e.
Primary Key) and any sorting collisions are handled
by sorting by secondary key i.e. the students Matric
number.
 Book return procedure: Student is required to
return the book within the due date. the book is taken
by the librarian then the issue card of that student is
taken out from the sorted records (with the book card
attached with the library issue card), then the book
card is again placed in the respective book and the
issue card is returned to the student by cutting of his
entry from the book card indicating that the student
no longer holds that book with him. If the book is not
returned within the due date then the fine is
calculated.
 In the course of adding new books, three registers are
maintained by the library staff; Register of Authors,
register of Books Title, Register of books sorted by
accession number. These registers are needed as a
catalogue for searching a particular book and
determining whether it is present in library or not.
New arrivals of the books are appended to books
register and a notice is put up on the library notice
board to inform the students about it.
 Fine system: It is required by the librarian to
calculate the fine which is paid by the student on not
returning the book within the return date of the book.
Librarian sees the issue book register and checks the
issue date and return date along with the student’s
details. The cost of the fine is GH 2/day for a book
and is calculated as the difference between the
current date and the return date.
4.2 Problems with the Current System
 No backup can be maintained as the data is large and
duplication of data consumes lot of time.
 Analysis on data and access to database is tedious.
 Inability to obtain the status of a book rapidly.
 Modification of the details of Student/Book is a large
process and may lead to chaos and is prone to errors.
 It is very difficult to search a particular book entry as
all the book registers are looked which requires very
large work force and is a tedious and cumbersome
process.
4.3 Data Flow Diagram (DFD)
Data Flow Diagram (DFD) provides an indication of how data
are transformed as they move through the system. It also
depicts the function that transforms the data flow.[6][1]
4.3.1 Context Diagram
Context diagrams in DFD show the overall information and
entity in an application.[6] This is presented below;
Figure 2 Context level DFD
4.3.2 Level 1 DFD
The Level 1 DFD outlines how the proposed system is divided
into sub-systems (processes), each of which deals with one or
more of the data flows to or from an external agent, and which
together provide all of the functionality of the system as a whole.
It also identifies internal data stores that must be present in order
for the system to do its job, and shows the flow of data between
the various parts of the system. [7][5] The figure below shows the
level 1 DFD used for the system;

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Figure 3 LEVEL 1 DFD
4.4 Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)
The ERP specifies the relationships between data objects and
attribute of each data object can be described using a data
object description.[3][4]
The entity relationship model for the application can be seen in
Figure 4 below.

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Figure 4 E-R Diagram of the Proposed System
4.5 Application Implementation
This section is divided into sub-sections in which each is going
to feature a short explanation and a screenshot of the a
particular feature of the proposed system .
4.5.1 User authentication form
A user provides a username and a password to login into the
system. However if a user fails to login after three attempts,
his/her account is locked automatically. At this point it is only
the system administrator who can unlock the user and possibly
reset the password. The system also records the date and time a
particular user logins in and out the system. Fig. 5 below
depicts that.
Figure 5 Login Form
4.5.2 Book form
Book Issuing Procedure: A Student can be issued a book
provided it is available and not already issued to another
student. Once the librarian clicks on the issue option, all the
books available for borrowing are automatically displayed. The
student ID is entered and all detail related information about
the student appears. The librarian also clicks on the book the

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student wishes to borrow and automatically its detail
information is also retrieved. The procedure checks for the case
when the book is already issued to some other borrower or the
book is not present in the library and thus the book is not
available for issuing. The librarian does not need to enter the
issuing date since the current date is automatically used and
then the validations for the date are performed. However the
return date will have to be entered by the librarian.
New arrivals of the books are appended to the books database
and the number of books in the library is incremented by 1.
The screen shot in fig 6 below depicts that.
Figure 6 Books Form
4.5.3 Students Form
New student records are added to the database using the form
in fig. 7 below, where the student is allowed to borrow up to a
maximum of books specified by the systems administrator.
Pictures of students are also captured to prevent impersonation.
Figure7 Students form

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4.5.4 Transaction Form (return Option)
A Student is required to return the book before/on the due date
otherwise he has to pay the fine which is calculated and
generated by the system automatically based on the interval
between the return date and the date of issuing. Once the
librarian clicks on the Return option, all borrowed
Books are automatically displayed along with students
currently keeping those books. The issued and return dates of
those books are also displayed. The librarian clicks on the
books to be returned and necessary information about the book
and the student is retrieved. He then clicks on the return button
and the book is returned. A screen shot is illustrated in the
figure below;
Figure 8 Transaction form
4.5.5 Options Form
The system generates a fine as prescribed by management of
the library. The Return date of books is generated according to
a predetermined time interval. If the book is not returned
before the return date arrives then fine is automatically
calculated and the student is charged to pay that amount.
Figure 9 below shows how the fine and the number of books a
student can borrow at a time is determined.
Figure 9 Options form
4.5.6 Report generation
The system incorporates report generation and filtering
mechanisms. Reports can be built on the basis of the following
criteria:
 List different books present in the library with the
columns separated under different fields viz. Author
name, Edition number, category, ISBN, Book ID and
status of the book whether the book is issued or not.
 View the details of books currently issued.
 View the books present in the library that is the
books which have not been issued by any of the
borrowers.
 Details of students who are currently issued books
with the details of the books.
 Fine report
 A detailed log report of users.
Figure 10 below shows a sample report of current students in
the library;

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Figure 10 Students Detail Report
5. CONCLUSION
Based on the results of application implementation, the
following has been concluded;
1. On the part of the library staff, a lot time in issuing,
returning and searching for the details of books and
students which could be saved and channeled into a
more productive and innovative business for the
library.
2. Also, this project is very useful to students as they
can access materials on time.
3. Generation of reports is enhanced which is useful in
taking key strategic decisions regarding the library.
4. Staff cannot manipulate the system for their
personnel interest since the generation of fine and the
number of days a student keeps a book is
predetermined in the system.
5. 35% survey respondents argued that the overall
application is good whilst 60% argued that the
overall application is very good. However, about 5%
feel the system needs improvements from the survey
results, it can be concluded that the application has
met the requirements set by the Tamale Polytechnic’s
Library.
6. REFERENCES
[1] Kemp, S. (2006). Project Management Made
Easy. California: Entrepreneur Press.
[2] Lucas and Serpa Silva, “Evolutionary Testing of
Object-Oriented Software” ACM SAC’10,
March 22- 26, 2010, Sierre, Switzerland, 978-1-
60558-638- 0/10/03
[3] Mauro Pezze and Michal Young, “Testing Object
Oriented Software”, IEEE Proceedings of the
26th international conference on Software
Engineering(ICSE’ 04).
[4] Qureshi, M. & Sabir, F. 2013. A Comparison
Model View Controller and Model View
Presenter. Sci.Int.(Lahore), 25(1):7-9.
[5] Kalelkar, M., Churi, P., Kalelkar, D. 2014.
Implementation of Model-View-Controller
Artchitecture Pattern for Business Intelligence
Architecture. International Journal of Computer
Applications, 102(12):16-21.
[6] Data Flow Diagram (DFD)s: An Agile
Introduction. Retrieved May 29, 2016.
http://www.agilemodeling.com/artifacts/dataFlo
wDiagram.htm
[7] Roger S. Pressman, Software Engineering A
Practitioner’s Approach, Seventh Edition,
McGrawHill Int’l Edition.

Developing a Comprehensive Library Management System for Tamale Polytechnic

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