DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AUTOMATED SYSTEM FOR BORROWING AND RETURNING BOOKS IN THE LIBRARY (USING AMBROSE ALI UNIVERSITY AS THE CASE STUDY)

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

The use of academic as a means of promoting learning in Nigeria has increased overtime. In this phase of globalization, so much emphasis has been given on equipping students with the right skills and competencies in order for them to gain competitive edge (Pascarella 2001).

For students to be active global players in the knowledge-based economy, where information is a commodity and where information is power, higher learning institutions are entrusted in producing a new breed of graduates. Students have to be actively engaged in the process of information seeking for research, assignments, and decision-makings.

Effective decision making, however, can only be achieved by having the right information, in the right place, in the right format, at the right time.

According to Breivik (2008: 2), stated that in this century, an ‘educated’ graduate will no longer be defined as one who has absorbed a certain body of factual information, but as one, who knows how to find, evaluate and apply needed information.” Emerging new sets of competencies are expected of students in higher learning institutions. Among them are information technology (IT) skill, critical thinking skill, communication skill, interpersonal skill and also information literacy skill.

The academic setting must be designed in response to the objective of producing students who are active information seekers. So much has been said on the need to have a paradigm shift in the academic setting from one that is teaching-based to that of learning-based.

On the other hand Library Automation refers to the use of computers to serve the needs of library users. The operations of a library get a quantum jump with the introduction of computers. The computers help to provide fast and reliable access to the resources available in the library as well as elsewhere (Breivik, 2010: 2). The application of computers in the library operations avoids repetitive jobs and saves lot of labour, time, speeds up operations, increases use of library resources. Computers are not only used as a tool for processing the data, but also for data storage and accessing.

Automating a college library is the process which restructures its functions and reinvents its services. By keeping a database as the basis, automation converge new technologies of information storage and retrieval with traditional housekeeping operations. An automated college library can serve the teaching and learning community more effectively (Standish, 2008). A reduction in the time needed for routine operations can be utilized to give customized services to the users. The process of library automation has a short history in our country. It needs proper planning and active implementation in initiating the automation of its library to cope with the ever changing needs of the students and staff.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The introduction of academic library in most universities is very important for the growth and development of the education sector in Nigeria; despite the contribution of academic library, there are still some problems faced by the academic library. One of the major problems faced by academic library in most of the university especially Ambrose Ali university is it the issue of missing books in the library. Other problems could be unidentification of Books in its shelf, time required to record as well as presenting an Information and also the cost of purchasing books, News paper and Journals and Magazines, uneasy returning of books to the library.

1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main aim of the research work is to design and implement an automated system for borrowing and returning books in the library. Other specific objectives of the study are:

1.   to creating a mechanism for notification of books stock in the library

2.  to create an enhanced Student login page where student can find books issued by him/her and date of return

3.  to design a system that will save the student information for future purpose

4.  to create a system that will not issue book twice to a student until he or she returns the book borrowed or collected

5.  to proffer solution to the above problem

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

The study on design and implementation of an automated system for borrowing and returning books in the library will be of immense benefit to the entire staff and students of Ambrose Ali university of Nigeria in the sense that through a kind of computerized library system, they can easily find the books that they are looking for without going through the traditional way of searching a library material. Convenience is more visible for it is not time-consuming, resulting to a number of accomplished works and also help monitor the rate at which books goes in and out of the library. The study will also serve as a repository of information to other researchers that desire to carry out similar research on the above topic. Finally the study will contribute to the body of the existing literature on automated system for borrowing and returning books in the library

1.5 SCOPE OF STUDY

The study on design and implementation of an automated system for borrowing and returning books in the library will be limited to the academic library in Ambrose Ali university of Nigeria

1.6 LIMITATION OF STUDY

Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection other constraints faced by the researchers are unavailability of academic materials, transport problem, lack of financial support, lack of Time, and unavailability of programming software such as Visual Basic 6, and .Net

1.7 ASSUMPTION OF THE STUDY

During the process of data collection, information relating to design and implementation of an automated system for borrowing and returning books in the library. The information was collected from the admin staff during the course of my industrial attachment. Hence, it is assumed that all the data collected are correct and contains no false information

1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Library: It is a department in an organization that deals with keeping tracks of book issued, returned and added to library.

Management: It is the co-ordination of all the resources of an Organization through the process of planning, Organization, directing and controlling

System: Physical component of a computer that is used to perform certain task.

Data: Numbers, Text or image which is in the form suitable for

Storage in or processing by a computer, or an incomplete information.

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