Herat University Library Management System English User Manual

Herat University
Library Management System

(HULMS)

User Manual
Version 2.0

About Author
First Name:

Abdul Rahman

Last Name:

Sherzad

Occupation:

Lecturer of Herat University Faculty of Computer Science

Degree:

Master of Informatics

Field of Study:

Programming and Information Database Management Systems

Abdul Rahman Sherzad was born and grown in Herat - Afghanistan. He gained his bachelor
degree in Computer Engineering from Computer Science Faculty of Herat University in 2006
as the first grade.
Due to having special talent in Programming and Information Database Management
Systems he was applied to instruct in Computer Science Faculty of Herat University and at
the same time he was working as Database Administrator in CRS.
After a while he was invited to continue his educations for master degree in field of
Programming and Information Database Management in TU-Berlin (Technical University of
Berlin) of Germany with financial support of the World Bank.
After successfully gaining master degree and coming back from Germany he has been
teaching in Computer Science Faculty of Herat University and leading Information
Management System Department of Herat University.

Acknowledgement
First of all, I would like to express many thanks to the Herat University especially Prof. Mir
Ghulam Osman Bariz Hossaini Chancellor of Herat University, Mr. Abdul Wasi Amiri Head of
Computer Science Faculty and other personnel and institutions that were involved in
providing me with the opportunity leading the project.

With deep appreciations from (PRT CIMIC Centre Slovenian Representation, Herat,
Afghanistan)

organization members Ms. Melita Šinkovec and Mr. Srečko Zajc for their

financial support and assistance with Herat University’s Central Library, Technical University
of Berlin Dr. Nazir Peroz, Mr. Rëne Herlitz and DAAD program who all adhered us in financial
fields with their generous financial supports.

Besides, special thanks from Ms. Waheeda Hamkar and Eqbal Shah Taha and other HUIMD
(Herat University Information Management Department) members for their hard effort and
adherence in designing and revising of library management user manual.

Contents
Overview................................................................................................................ 1
Installation .......................................................................................................... 2
Support and Helpdesk......................................................................................... 3
Getting Started with HULMS ............................................................................... 4
User Roles and Definition ................................................................................... 4
HULMS at a Glance ............................................................................................. 5
HULMS Tour........................................................................................................... 6
Searching for the Books ...................................................................................... 6
Library General Information ............................................................................... 8
Account Information ........................................................................................... 9
Resource Management ..................................................................................... 11
Manage Books ............................................................................................... 12
Master ................................................................................................................. 17
Statistics .............................................................................................................. 19
News and Events.................................................................................................. 20

Overview
Having access to a resourceful and book jammed library is known as a prominent
step for information development of knowledge seekers and plays a vital rule in
education and research.
Recognizing this important feature for knowledge development especially in higher
education section prompted us to create an ultra-systematic library system for
facilitation of fast accessing to the needed source for research and study.
This project conquers the current challenging problem existing in Herat University
Libraries and it's manually workflow fulfilled procedure by introducing and
implementing a systematic solution for each one of the existing problem which will
lead to reduction and overcoming the problems and challenges.

Generally, the Library Management System is aimed to substitute the existing
classical and wrecked paper-based library system of Herat University Library
enabling the library members to perform all the specified duties assigned to a
library member in most effective manner.
Implementation of this project enables the library staff (librarian) to make entry of
new library resources i.e. books, eBooks, members, announcements and etc. as
well as updating, deleting and issuing a book to a member, find out details of
library resources such as total number of books and members accurately for
example, members by their gender, faculties, departments and books which are
issued to members and did not return on time and many more.
The library members are able to use this project to find out details of all the books
which are present currently in the library and determining whether they are exist
inside the library or borrowed by library members and the due time for returning

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1

the borrowed book and etc.

Herat University Library Management System (absherzad@gmail.com)

Installation
It is completely easy to install and use, this system can be installed and
configured over an intranet and/or internet and can be globally accessible by
certain computer or computers. So, never hesitate to access this resourceful
library wherever you are! Following is an instruction for installing this
system on an intranet network as follow:
1. You need to install and configure Apache, PHP and MySQL on your
server computer either each one individually or using the WAMP
Server (for Windows OS), MAMP Server (for Mac OS), and last but
not least the XAMP Server (for Linux OS) that bundled all the
following required tools together.
a. Apache 2.2.x
b. MySQL 5.5.x
c. PHP 5.3.x
2. Extract the source code inside the www directory of apache web
server.
3. Change the database credentials inside the db.php file located in the
lib directory. The following lines should be manipulated based on your
database credentials:
a. define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');
b. define('DB_USER', 'myusername');
c. define('DB_PASSWORD', 'mypassword');
d. 3.4

define ('DB_SCHEMA', 'mydatabasename');

4. Open the browser and type the URL for accessing PHPMyAdmin like
http://localhost/phpmyadmin/ and select the import link on the top-right
of the window and browse the database schema file huldb.sql from the

http://localhost/huldb/www/index.php


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5. Finally browse for the following URL

2

schema directory.

Support and Helpdesk
We would be glad to offer you any supportive information about the probable
problems that you might encounter with or having your valuable suggestion for
even more and more amendment and development of HULMS. Your contacts
through the following addresses are mostly welcomed.

absherzad@gmail.com

Contact No:

0093 700 440 209

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3

Email:


Getting Started with HULMS
Now for Using the HULMS, the following steps should be taken:
1. In

the

Login

screen

that

appears,

by

accessing

the

address

(http://localhost/huldb/www/index.php), insert your Username and Password
which will be given to you by the librarians and then click on Login button.
2. It will now display the Main Menu according to your level of access and
permission to the system.
NOTE:
It is mentionable that at any time you are able to change your password, email
address, or update your profile information within the system whenever you are
logged in.

User Roles and Definition
There are different possible roles for accessing and being connected to HULMS
which are as follow:
1. Student: If you want to access the HULMS with the privilege of a student
you are able to search and request for the book you want no matter whether
you are pending or returned.
2. Lecturer: At the moment the one with the lecturer privilege has the same
right as a student but in the near future he will be considered with more
privilege on the system like: extendibility in lending duration and etc.
3. Librarian: Users with privilege of librarians could have access to the most
features of the system and are authorized to manage library resources,
members, books, eBooks, new, and etc.

library resources for example you are authorized to even backing and
restoring the data up in future and etc.


Page

with the privilege of the administrator you are able to manipulate all of the

4

4. Administrator: While you enter the system or have access to the system

HULMS at a Glance
The key features of HULMS are as follows:
1. Profile section: as a user (with any privilege) you can access your account
information and edit or delete some of your relevant information like
changing your password, email, photo and etc.
2. Service section: This section refers to the library administrators through
which they are able to manage their own resources i.e. library members,
books, depositing library resources to the members, customizing the library
information, policy, services, email and etc. Last but not least can view list of
users whose time for returning the borrowed books has expired and they
haven’t returned the book yet which will have great effect for best
supervision and uniformity.
3. Master section: This is also a section referred to the administrators of the
library that enables them to manage the master information like: book
authors, publishers, categories, and etc… which are needed for identifying
the books and library members
4. Statistic and Summery: This section is one of the most useful parts of this
system that provides various useful reports about library resources i.e.
books, members, eBooks, transactions and etc… for the administrator
librarians enabling them to have general reports and absolute supervision on
the situation.
5. News and Events: Here the logged in user (with any privilege) can merely
see the important news and events that are published by the librarians with

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no authentication to alter any part of them.


HULMS Tour
Maybe the above offered information hasn’t completely helped you to understand the
functionality of the HULMS. So, let’s have a tour to show you the functionality of the
HULMS’s features by descriptions accompanied with demonstration of some screenshots
which helps you fully understand how to use and work with this system.

Searching for the Books
This is the most important feature of the HULMS that provides a search engine for the
members in order to look after their favorite books based on different criteria i.e. book title,
author, category, section, languages as well as searching for a specific library among other
libraries.
Through this feature

you will know that

either your favorite book is available inside the

library or already borrowed and taken out by someone else and when will be returned back
to the library. In addition, if there is an eBook or other different media types such as video
or audio the user could download them.
In order to access this useful feature, simply click on the Books link located on the top

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6

navigation bar as it is shown by following screenshot:


The following screenshot desmonstrates the user search for all the English books inside the
Computer Science Faculty Library.

As you see on the above screenshot there is a linked icon, when clicking on it another
window will be shown displaying the general information

about that book as well as how

many copies are available ready for deposition and how many already borrowed by

library

members and will be back to the library, last but not least it will list the other media types
such as PDF, DOC, PPT, Video, Audio, etc. offering inability to the user to download and use

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them.


Library General Information
For getting information about each library i.e. their history, policy, services and contact

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address, simply click on any link on the top navigation bar as follow:


For instance, here clicking on the home link will display the content for the home page of
libraries one of which is already expanded and you can click on the other library name to
show you that library’s information as follow:

As you can see

in the above screenshot there are six libraries part of Herat University

Library Management System such as Rudaki, Computer Science, Central Library, Economics,
Agriculture, and Science

that by clicking on any one of them they will display their

information and the same concept is for their privacy, services, and contacts and so on.

Account Information
As a logged in user you will be able to access your profile and account information as well
as you can update your password, email address, and photo. The system is smart enough to
check data during the entry, for example, does not let the user keep the email or leave the
email and other mandatory information blank. The following screenshot will display the

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profile settings:


As you see the above screenshot includes different links for different purposes for instance
by clicking on the Change Password link a window will appear that enable you to update
your information as follow:

If the logged in user would like to check his / her account that how many books he already
borrowed and how many books he has currently with and when should return them back he

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follow:

10

/ she can simply click on his username and another page will display all the details as


Resource Management
A library has different resources including members, books, and certainly will issue the
books as lent to the members; all the mentioned features will be done through the Services

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section as follow:


Manage Books

For the demonstration here will show the process of managing books by each library
administrator simply click on the Books Management link a page will appear and enable the
librarian to manage the books related to his / her own library as follow:

As the above screenshot demonstrates there is an advanced search available that gives the
opportunity to the librarian to search for a specific book and each book has an
administration link for edition, deposition and eBook management which are as follow:
Edit Book
Clicking on the edit icon link will show the page where has the book information filled in and
ready for manipulation.
For better organization, the book information is divided to different categories. The general
information is displayed in different section as category, and publisher information as

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12

demonstrated by the following screenshot:


13
Page


eBook Management
AS mentioned before the librarian is able to add various media for the books such as PDF,
PPT and etc… and this is applicable by just clicking on the eBook link and soon the following
page will be shown:

Book Deposition
Lending library resources to the members is a common task of each library and this task
can be done by clicking on the open book linked icon and soon a page will be shown that
displays the book and copies information and the status for each copy if it is available or

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14

borrowed by someone as follow:


As the above screenshot demonstrates there are two copies for the books one can be read
inside the library and the other copy is ready for deposition. Clicking on that link will lead to

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15

another page as follow:


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Page


Master
This

is

the

part

that

is

used

by

the

administrators and through this part you can
a

comprehensive

supervision

and

manipulation options about the books, users,
authors, categories, sections, and language
for use, publishers and faculties.
Let’s try the first one from the Master
category, the (Book Master option)
After clicking on Book Master Option a page
like (figure a.1) will be opened to you and
you can do the followings:

1. Entry of code the book in LC standard or any other method
2. You can add the enter the title of book
3. ISBN stands to International Standard Book Number and you can use it for
entering the international code number of a book.
4. For entering number of pages the book under registration comprised of.
5. Selecting the language.
6. You can select the edition from drop down box.
7. Determining to which library this book belongs.
8. If you have any description about this book you can add them here.
9. Opening the current page as shown in figure a.1

12. By this option you can select to which category your book refers.
13. For saving the entered information and this is done as the last step.


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11. for entering information about the publisher of the book.

17

10. for entering the information about the author of the book.

The same procedure as we did above could be followed according to the aim of an

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18

administrator for each section.


Statistics
May be you want to have a general report and
information under deferent conations and criteria
about users , books , eBooks and deposition of books
, then this is the place that can match your
requirements.

As an example if we click on Book Statistics the page as shown in (figure a.2) will
be displayed:
1. If you want to see all the statistics of all the books you can click this option.
2. For having statistics of the books under the condition of existent libraries(for
example here we have clicked on Book By Library) and you see the result
3. For having general information under the classifications of books by category.
4. For having general information under the classification of books by language.
5. For having general information under the classification of books by status.
6. For having general information under the classification of books by best
chooses.
The same procedure could be followed if you want to have statistics of other

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fields.


News and Events
This is the place that you could find the latest news and
announcements about the library or libraries and just if
you click on the date that you want to have its relevant
news you will be directly connected to the news page of

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20

the date.


Herat University Library Management System English User Manual

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