Library Information System

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
I.1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The world of Information Technology transformed and made the life of human beings easier through the innovation of different machines and software applications. Faster and reliable sources have been offered by search engines which are all over the web. But even though this is the case, many schools and universities are still requiring their students to use library materials in their researches and school works.

Our proposed system, the Library Information System, is a system wherein there is no need of manual library transactions. This will carry out different processes such as searching books, keep records of the books, borrowing of books and return of books.

The main purpose of this proposal is to provide the members and students of the educational institution an easy access and comfortable way to get or to issue books. This system will also provide the information needed in determining the status of the books, and also useful in providing information that which book is issued to which member or student. The members and students will have different choices based on their necessities which this system will provide easy navigational features that provides a very user-friendly interface.

Sta. Lucia Academy is a secondary school located at Sta. Lucia, Ilocos Sur. It is founded by the late Teofisto Hermosa, the father of their current principal, Mrs. Liberty Acosta. Their vision is to be an educational institution that is caring, helping, and supportive in the pursuit of quality education for an educational community, maximizing its objectives to the national and local development goals forming a community which is pro-God, pro-man and pro-nature. They also believe that they will accomplish the aim in the establishment of a secondary school in the community, prepare the students with an effective secondary curriculum that would prepare them for their tertiary schooling, develop among the students the feeling of friendship and camaraderie to prepare them to be good members of the community where they belong, pursue all government policies towards integrated educational system and cooperate with the local and national leadership in the developing goals, give emphasis to curricular offerings and related activities that enhance the total development of the society; spiritually, socially, economically and ecologically.

In our analysis of the Five Forces of Santa Lucia Academy, we have determined that it is difficult to put up this kind of industry, the barrier is high, not attractive because it is a non-profit organization, and difficult to manage which will result to low pressure in terms of Threats of New Entry. In terms of Threats of Substitute, we found out that Santa Lucia Academy has two competitors namely Teodoro Hernaez National Highschool and Santa Lucia Catholic School. Students may enroll to other competitor schools but they cannot find SLA’s low priced tuition fee. It is because of the scholarship that they are giving. For the Buyer Power of Customers, customers or students can go to other schools but the quality of education is low, power of customers to drive down prices is low because the school follows certain regulations in terms of giving tuition fee, when consumers switch cost, this is not relative for the organization to switch cost and consumers have no complaints about their pricing techniques.

In terms of Supplier Power, since SLA has the most number of students, it has the power to threaten its suppliers of books to switch from another supplier which alerts them. Suppliers have also unique quality of books. Quality in terms of content and materials used to produce the books. Their suppliers require bulk orders and it will lead to discounts. Suppliers change inputs every school year which lead to increase or decrease of price of books. SLA could also be vertically integrated. Suppliers in terms of labor and services could not easily join the organization because of high requirements among teachers. Solidarity among employees is high because of labor unions. For the Competitive Rivalry, there are two existing competitors near to SLA in the same industry: Teodoro Hernaez National Highschool and Sta. Lucia Catholic School. Their target is to have the highest quality education and productive graduates. THNHS and SLCS doesn’t compete well with SLA sometimes. SLA often has an absolute cost advantage over other competitors. I.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This study has the aim to develop the library of Sta. Lucia Academy by proposing to them this Library Information System. The problems were:
I.2.1. How will the proposed Library Information System will help Santa Lucia Academy to solve their problem in terms of issuing and borrowing books in their Library?
I.2.2. How will the proposed Library Information System help Sta. Lucia Academy to reduce their costs or expenses that are coming from their library?
I.2.3.How will the proposed Library Information System increase the competitive advantage of Sta. Lucia Academy? I.3 OBJECTIVES OF

THE STUDY
The Santa Lucia Academy’s library is known to have the biggest library among the schools in Sta. Lucia, Ilocos but yet, they are not using automated library information system.
This project proposal will introduce new quicker ways to provide access to more information and new services which are previously unavailable to them when they are not still using an automated library system. This proposal also introduces new low cost information technologies which will offer opportunity to have new tools which will be used in enhancing the role of the library in the Information Age. This proposal also have the aim of developing a “ next generation” system which will incorporate new formats and features that will be used to meet the demands of users.

I.3.1. To help Sta. Lucia Academy in their problem regarding the issuing and monitoring the borrowing of books by the students to the library.
I.3.2. To reduce the costs that are coming from their library.
a. Costs of card catalogs that are produced.
b. Costs of the cabinets that are used to store the processed card catalogs
I.3.3. To increase the competitive advantage of Sta. Lucia Academy over their competitors. I.4. IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY
This proposal opens new window of opportunities to SLA’s library to toughen effective use of resources, the use of advanced technologies, enhancement of the role of the library in the information field and the opportunity of transferring data electronically on demand wherever it is located.

Having an automated library information system is beneficial to students, the administrators and members of the school, the parents, as well as the said organization. Library is a vital component and a research center which supports and develops the curriculum of the school.

Students today are computer savvy. They are being so excited on computer games, on social medias and many other applications found in the internet. The library is also a part of their experience in the school particularly in their environment. That is why this study will help the students to give them knowledge on how important is an automated library system to them and how this information system will help them to expand their horizons. This study will also show them that having an automated library system will make them to be eager in using tools and materials that will enhance their studies. Based on the schools that have installed automated library system, the rate of the students that are going to library has been increased. One reason is the quicker and easier way to search on the books they need in just one or two clicks of the mouse. Another is, it shows materials that are related to what they need. This is possible because of the indexed search. To summarize in a few words how automation in the library affects the students, an automated library is seen as vibrant and alive. Automation can make the library an awesome place for the students.

Librarians also appreciate automation because of its ease of use. As we conducted the data gathering, we find out that their librarian is also a teacher on the school. It is a big problem for her on how to be librarian and a teacher at the same time specially when the library is not automated. That is why this study is very important to her in order for her work to be lessened. Through the automation of the library, the librarian can circulate items with simplicity and have an accurate account on the activities of the students in the library.

Every organization really cares for the costs that they are generating every year. This study will make realize the organization that having an automated library is less expensive than maintaining traditional card catalogs. When one counts how much is the cost of maintaining cabinets as storage of the processed catalog cards, the cost of cards and the time of filing these cards, automation is cost-effective in the long-term. Another is that, automation is easier than maintaining card catalogs and more information is available than having the traditional cards arrangement could provide.

This study is also important for the members of the faculty of the organization. Through the automation of the library, they could enhance their teaching techniques and could provide meaningful topics to the students. Research projects are also based on the materials owned by the school.

On the part of the researchers, the study can be of a good learning experience which would be a guide to them to their future lives. The study also gave the researchers the opportunity to enter to a new level of learning in such a way that their skills, especially technical skills, are being developed and might soon be applied to their future lives.

The study also acts as a reference for future researchers who wish to develop a more usable and convenient technology for their chosen libraries. The parents of the students could also be benefited to the automation of the library because they are assured that their children were enrolled to a school which will give the needs of their children in terms of their studies.

I.5. SCOPE AND DELIMITATIONS
In every first time software creation, there are always boundaries or limitations as well as its scope. The following are the scope and limitations of the study.
The study was focused in the proposal of Library Information System of Sta. Lucia Academy in Ilocos Sur. The improvement would be an asset for the organization for the future. The system would be proposed to help assist in delivering good quality services to the users. The researchers formulated the scope and limitation to identify the boundaries of this study. The intended correspondents of the research are the student, librarians and employees of Sta. Lucia Academy. The study will be completed in the maximum range of six months.

The scope of the study is that the system will take information regarding the books, articles and magazines in the library. Another is that the system will show the availability of the books, articles and magazines in the library. The system will also show the latest known location of the particular requested book, article or magazine. And lastly the system will allow students and faculty to access with username and password.

The limitations of the system are that it can only be accessed with a username and password, it is not internet based so the student and teachers should directly go to the library, it can only be use to trace the location and the availability of the book, the information can only be change by the librarians, assistant librarians and other administrator, there is no graphical reports which are related to the issuing and returning of books, and the system could not calculate the funds that were collected from the students and other members of the organization.

I.6. DEFINITION OF TERMS
Library Information System- It is a system that makes use of information technology (IT) to carry out managerial objectives. The main goal of a library management information system is to store, organize, share and retrieve vital information needed to carry out daily operational functions of the library. Search engine- A program for the retrieval of data, files, or documents from a database or network, esp. the Internet. Non-profit Organization- is an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals rather than distributing them as profit or dividends. Vertical integration- a style of management control which are united through a common owner. Information Age- is a period in human history characterized by the shift from traditional industry that the industrial revolution brought through industrialization, to an economy based on information computerization. Computer savvy-

Card Catalogs- is a register of all bibliographic items found in a library or group of libraries, such as a network of libraries at several locations. Cost Advantage- Superiority achieved through factors such as access to cheaper inputs, efficient processes, favorable location, skilled workforce, superior technology, and/or waste reduction or elimination.

I.7. REFERENCES

Alcones, M.L., Mislang, S.V., & Pitos, A. (March 2013). Library Management System
for the Divine Mercy College Foundation, Inc. Of Caloocan. Retrieved from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Chapter-1-Library-Management-System-1417759.html Broering, N.C. (2007). Library Information System Resource Sharing Project. Retrieved from http://web.simmons.edu/~chen/nit/NIT’93/93-017-boering.html Cortez, E. M. (October 2003). Library Information Systems: From Library Automation to Distributed Information Access Solutions (review). Retrieved from http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/pla/summary/v003/3.4cortez.html Dubey, M.K. (2004). Polyclinic Information System. Retrieved from http://www.scribd.com/doc/22537101/Library-Information-System-Project-Report Greene, L.H. (November 2012). How to Write the Background or Introduction Section. Retrieved from http://courses.physics.illinois.edu/phys499/Lectures/499_Background-Intro-Section_LHGreene.pdf Jessiah (March 2013). Library System. Retrieved from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Library-System-1485254.html?topic Jones, W.D. (n.d.). Benefits of Automating the School Library. Retrieved from http://www.rediker.com/assets/news/Benefits-Automating-School-Library.pdf

Research Proposal on Computerized Library System (n.d.). Retrieved from http://ivythesis.typepad.com/term_paper_topics/2010/08/research-proposal-on–5.html Venable, J.R. (1999). A Proposal and Prototype for an Information Systems Digital Library. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.5.281&rep=rep1&type=pdf