Library Information Management System - Coursework Example

Martin College. TO: Linda Gay. Library Information Management System. Introduction and project background. Due to the current trends in the workplace sector, there has been need to reduce the amount of effort that human beings apply in their day to day activities, reduce the amount of time used in attending some tasks or activities and the errors that arise due to human un-keenness and thus increase the efficiency and productivity of results obtained. In this regard therefore the manager for the Austlib approached us to make a development of a system responsible for management as regards the issuance and receipt of books in the library. This system will monitor the issuance and receipt of books in the library alongside the borrower’s details. Once books are received into the library, an entry is made in the “Books Entry” form and the latest borrower is inserted in the borrower entry form. When the borrower needs to get a certain book, the book is issued on the basis of availability in regard to the client. The issuing and outstanding date for the returning of the borrowed material is also inserted into the Issue form under another menu “Book Issue”. If the books is not returned past the specified date of return, then a fine is made practical in that the borrower is made pay the fine in applicability in regard to the number of days the book is late in reference to the depositing of the book back in the library. This project is expected to commence and last for a period of two weeks. Aims or visions of the project. This project aims at developing and implementing a library information management system which will serve as a replacement for the manual catalogue system. This new system is to cater for book borrowing details alongside other essential information in regard to library borrowing and information to be stored in the library database. Another aim for this project is to ensure that the amount of effort in the library reduces accordingly and thus faster tracking records are attained. This way, the efficiency of the day to day running of the library activities would improve and thus improve service delivery. Lastly, the project aims at producing one of the fastest information systems that can withstand stress in the case of over-accumulation of request to the server and over activity from too much stress of clients logging in simultaneously. Objectives of this project. Objectively, this projects intends to produce a working system that enhances library services and thus increase efficiency. This is in tandem with the aims of the projects. Secondly, by the end of this project, a risk free system would be put in place and to avoid the risks of incognito in the borrowing process. Another objective is to increase knowledge of the participants in the field of system development and the risks associated with it. Lastly, this project’s final objective is to produce a budget friendly system, which in affordable and efficient at the same time. Many developed systems go way beyond the common user friendly budgets hence make clients strains financially with resources that would otherwise be so affordable. This project also seeks to reduce the number of errors that are made in the manual catalogue systems since human work is prone to errors and the numerous departments are bound to make many errors due to the fact that the number of humans increase the rate of making errors. Project scope. The scope of this project is not unison rather a varied one. Firstly, this project identifies the needs to be met in the library environment. Then these need are put down, analyzed and then correct mechanisms put in place to see the implementation processes that would see these needs met. In this regard, the wider scope of this project looks at all the processes and procedures to be put into use to ascertain these needs. Firstly, there is need assessment in order to understand the needs that need to be met. This will ensure that indeed the project is tied to the needs and is fully relevant to the situation or environment it is directed at. While there are many information systems out there this one is definitely meant to differ in the sense that the implementation mechanism and the overall stress load is going to be highly at recognizable levels hence the uniqueness of this project. The system is to meet the issuance and receipt of books from the library with details regarding the return dates and. Therefore the basic functions of this project include the issuance and receipt of books, identification and management of risks that might arise due the practicability of the system since there are usually many risks associated with online systems when exposure into the real world is made. Therefore this project will highly emphasize on the procedures and the recommendations that are set to be met in the course of delivery and implementation of this system. In addition, there will be aspects of security and discussion on what best approaches to follow in the implementation of the most effective and less susceptible system during the implementation phase. Project standards. According to many intranet standard, the contents of this system should be less wordy and be kept tight with a content management process that would the updating of content to current details. Secondly, all functions of html, should be tested and verified with the semantics of the systems also verified according to the accepted standards. This will ensure that all the interfaces of the systems are full functional. User feedback is an unavoidable aspect in the testing of the standards of the system in tandem with accepted information systems standards The system will have all the pages linked back to the home page since all directories will have a home association which will give a short cut to many accesses in the system. Also, the directories should be tested on how they give a print view from a given browser with the navigation buttons back and forward enabled. The system will be developed in accordance with the development standard that sees the development and testing of the system on the development servers. This should also incorporate the testing procedure of using at least five testers so that reliance on the system can be reassured. Copyright standards should be followed highly in the sense that all corporate policies or rules regarding the implementation of such systems would give reservation of the rights of those who use or developed the system. Disclaimer in the headers section that gives the rights of usage of the system, that is for internal purposes only, should be made use of in connection to the legal standards. Applications of this type of system would ensure the use of LAN in the corporate sense and thus will have to follow all the requirements which specify communication protocols and the file transfers protocols available. Work breakdown structure. the work breakdown structure consists of the following steps; need identification- standard set up, tool collection, design, testing, implementation, maintenance and support. Diagrammatically, this can be represented as follows; Diag1: A flowchart representation of the steps involved in system development. The work breakdown structure for all task. Task Duration Predecessor Start/finish Resources Costs. Convince Board 3days None 9 am14th – 4pm17th Board Meetings 200 Need Identification 3days 1 9am18th-5pm 21st Field work, interviews, simulation 250 System Design. 2days 1,2 9am21st-4pm23rd. 100 Design Implementation 7days 1,2,3 9am 24th -1st. 5pm programmers 1500 System Testing 2days. 1,2,3,4 9am 2nd -4pm 3rd. Staff, project manager 200 System Installation 1 day 1,2,3,4,5 9am 4th- 5pm 4th. Technical staff 50 Report. 1 day All the above. Project manager 250 Since this is a public library, users may vary unlike in academic institution cases. Thus the needs of these people or clientele will definitely undergo variations. This will thus mean that the public library’s intranet be somewhat different from the academic institutional libraries. In this regard therefore, there will be a variety or needs for this system which include, the processes of borrowing books, like for example it may be required that an individual pays some amount s registration fee and then be able to borrow books from this library. Other needs include staff regulation of borrowing books which are the conditions of borrowing. This means that the staff has to take into consideration the pre-borrowing conditions in order to allow for borrowing of a book. Some of these conditions might include, the conditions for borrowing books, the application of fines in the case of delays and a set of database where each user information will be stored such that only registered user can access the library. In this regard therefore, a set of development standard that would be applicable in this case include, the use of plain html, mySQL for the development of the database since intranets do not have many clients who will give the system a lot of stress, the use of PHP for querying the database and getting instructions out of it. These set of standards would be most appropriate in the sense, there would be a very effective system developed purely to fit into the requirements of an intranet setting. Development of this system shall consist of three levels, first the development of the html syntax containing the page layout and any other visible content that will be displayed by any browser. This will set up the visual interface in place and thus help in the setting up of the later required injections. Secondly, there is need for the implementation of the system database in which all user information and histories shall be stored. This database should be set such that it allow access only through the intranet protocols. After the success of all these, then there is the view of the system requirements for this system to run efficiently and thus purchase of the required hardware that can support the system. Product budget. Units/Hrs Cost- Unit/Hr Subtotals WBS Totals % of Total Units pr hours. Cost per unit ($) Subtotals %Totals 1. Project Management (labor) 10 300 3000 12.5684 Project Manager one 1000 1000 3.9854 Project Team members x 2 Two Members 500 1000 3.9854 2. Hardware Computers 21 PCs 100 2100 8.345 Servers 2 Wireless adapters 4 800 3200 13.354 Access points 5 500 2500 10.125 Ethernet boards 6 200 1200 9.568 Network operating systems 5 100 500 4.985 Cabling, and other components 300M 4200 18.565 3. Network Design Design tools 100 Cards 1 100 3.9854 4. Software 20% of total Software Development 2 400 800 3.265 5. Installation/Testing (5% of Total hardware and software costs) 5 750 3750 14.526 6. Training and Support Staff training (6) x 2 days 6 10 60 .4254 User inactivity x 50 staff x 2 days 50 10 500 3.254 Documentation costs 3 100 300 1.7543 7. Reserves (Project Risk- 10% 2 500 1000 8.345 of total estimate) 25 210 Training. Once the system has been fully developed and is ready for implementation, then there is need for training of staff on how to use the system in their day to day operations. Since this will shed some light on the most difficult aspects of the interface, some knowledge might solve this mystery. Project communication. There are a variety of communication strategies that can be employed in the coordination of the developers and the sources of the needs for the development of this system. Since there are only two developers in the development section, then face to face communication would be most effective and efficient since this mode of communication is the best and the cheapest here there is enough clarifications and allows for enough. Concerning need collection, telephone communication coupled with face to face with the top management of the library will be employed whereby telephone might be useful in the collection of data from librarians. Video conferencing would prove useful when training the staff on how to go about using the system. Quality management in regard to ISO 900 Standards. Regarding the quality of the system, there is need to assure quality in every system that undergoes development. This is due to the fact that quality assurance becomes a top priority for any organization in order to ensure complete customer satisfaction. Some of the qualities that would oversee the quality management enhance should foresee the development of a system that would translate the intranet application to help people solve what is on their minds. The use of accessibility of the database should be restricted but very efficient in the running of the required operations. There should also be a good login system with recovery mechanisms, able to serve the required purposes. The online help system should contain all the necessary information in regard to the frequently asked questions. Secondly, the help is intended to offer navigational assistance to either the staff or the client interface such that there is no getting stuck in using the system. The staff and the clientele should be fully satisfied by the use of the system in real-time application. Risk management. There are bound to arise many risks in the course of project commencement, execution and completion. The severity of the risks involve would greatly depend the stage of the project. For instance high risks are at the commencement stage and the lowest risks occur towards the end of the project. In the commencement stage serious issues are bound to arise if enough care is not taken. For instance, wrong need identifications may lead to the development of the wrong system. Secondly, inexperienced programmers in the implementation stage during system development may lead to many bugs due to incorrect syntax and thus halt the development process. This risk can be minimized by contracting very qualified programmers. Poor communication during the system development stage may also be critical in the failure of system development. This is avoided by allowing for alternatives in the communication model. Communications Management Plan Note: 1. Stakeholder communications requirements communications management 2. Information communicated: Include format, content, level of detail 3. Source of information 4. Conveying the information 5. Frequency of communication 6. Escalation procedures for resolving issues 7. Revision procedure for updating Library manager Verbal communication, taped and deep in details Team leader. Verbal delivery Weekly Issues resolved as per risk assessment plan After every meeting with the LM Our team Verbal and video electronic Project manager Phone, email, face to face verbal On daily basis. Resolved when updating status After every meeting with any stakeholder. Senior Librarian Raw clear detail Library departments Telephone, visit Twice in the whole duration Consulting the LM After every meeting System development manager. Raw information The development team Phone calls, video conferencing Weekly basis Coordinating development team At end of every week During system development, the wrong or inefficient working tools may halt the development process in the sense that if the computers used for the development process hang up, this could be highly detrimental to the whole process or lead to project delays. To ensure the occurrence of this risk is minimized, powerful computers and servers should be chosen prior to commencement. The third type of risk that might occur is the breakdown of the system once it is made use of in real-time. This might arise du to poor abilities of the system to overcome stress. Team roles and contact details. The Project steering committee which is made of Us (2) is responsible for the steering of the project and the contact is the Project manager. Secondly, the Project management team made of all the stakeholders is responsible for thee progresses of the project and the contact is the Library manager. In the implementation department, the System Analyst is responsible for need identification and thus system implementation and the contact is the top Engineer. This is also in charge and the contact detail of the testing phase. For formulation of the report, the project manager shall be responsible for the delivery of the report and thus make the smooth running of the project a possibility. Risk Identification. Risk Ref. Risk Source. Impact of risk. E Wrong system development wrong need identifications Sever impairment. F Project Delays or shut down Poor communication during the system development Severe delays or shut down G System Halt. wrong or inefficient working tools Stoppage of Development I Restarting System Breakdown Doubling project duration. J Unreliability. Non-defensive system Ineffectiveness Project Governance and Accountabilities This project assumes the top down structure involving the design itself. This top-down structure will ensure that whenever decisions are made, there is absolute surerity on the decisions and the actions to be undertaken and thus removes any chances of doubtful actions. This means that once the management approves some technical stages of the project, then this stage gets implemented by the respective departments including the system development department. Once the project gets into progress, there is need for consultation from the sources of funds in order to get the project into real commencement. This involves getting in touch with the project stakeholders to convince the board so that funds may be availed. The funds will entirely come from the Library management accounts through the approval of the library manager. Despite the many challenges that this project will face, control is highly emphasized on and project control is vested in the hands of the project coordinator. Monitoring of the project is another important aspect of this project since the project ought to be a success an not a failure. Thus project monitoring will have to be taken seriously and this is done by the project manager, who is me in this case, and give a record of account of every detail or progress that the report makes. The project will be monitored through counter checks of all tasks at every stage. Once the project is put into monitoring, then the results of the monitoring exercise have to be communicated so as to enable the stakeholders and the development team to make adjustments. Since this form part of a large team, communication might prove troublesome. Communicating with each department of project implementation is quite a tedious exercise. This thus call for generalized means of communication that can reach a variety of audiences and this only means that video conferencing will be inevitable. This will make it possible for all teams to get updated almost simultaneously and thus improve pace of project implementation. Once communication has been effective, then implementation is almost immediate. This therefore implies that once the project is under implementation then results are expected from the work in progress. However these results might not be satisfactory hence calling for measurement in regard to the project objectives at each stage. Therefore measurement will call for relation of every stage results with the project objectives. In this regard, the duties of result collection and analysis in relation to the project objectives, the project manager will be vested with the responsibility of handling any contingencies arising from the report. These might include finding out all the setbacks that might be found to cause stir in the progress of the report and taking appropriate action. These actions include finding these contingencies and making official reports to the library manager and the development team. Task 3: System testing. During this stage of development, there are ten testers in each category and the system shall be installed in one of the servers of the library. Five random characters known as testers on the staff side would be selected and trained on what to do. The results shall be recorded. Likewise, there shall be ten tester on the client side, those who would need to register and start borrowing books from the library and too the results recorded. If in both cases there happens to be nonfunctioning aspect, then the process shall revert back to the development stage. Any errors shall automatically lead to a reverting in the process of development. Task4:Security policy plan. This being a system that needs remote administration, there are several security levels to be implemented. First of all this being an intranet, no access shall be allowed on internet under the http//:www.library protocol. Thus all the non desired protocols shall be switched off. Secondly, this system will need login forms for clients section and the librarian administrators. These logins shall be accompanied by passwords consisting of not less than eight characters. The administrative login page should be different from the client login page to avoid hack through behaviors. The fire wall shall be enabled always and new intrusion detections software put in place to detect, block and report intrusions. Installation of an antivirus is key to prevention of viruses, malwares, Trojans and other non-desired software in the computer that might interfere or block the system from functioning properly. Task5: Post Implementation Review. Status Report. The function of this report is to give an report of the current status for the Library Management system Implementation project. By the end of the third week of the project, as at 5th June, the project has achieved the targeted progress meaning that this project is on schedule. The contract has been signed and thus Project Plans developed and approved and the buyer has permitted the necessities. We have initiated logical and corporeal design phases, and initial tests have given positive results. System development phase took longer than anticipated; this belated the approval of the system implementation. In detail this review consist of the examination of the objectives whereby the review should be assertive of the objectives. This means that the system is successful in the replacement of the manual catalogue system and it produced the desired results, that is, it worked like expected. However there were experienced delays in the development of the system when some of the programmers did not report to work for two consecutive days. Testing was successful in that there the aims of testing were achieved and thus enabled the system to achieve success. However some lessons can be leant from this system implementation like for instance the failure of the two programmers in the implementation stage really caused a lot of delays and this should be avoided in future by contracting additional standby programmers. System operations manual. 1 Install the system should in a P4 computer with a minimum of 512MB Ram and 80 GB hard disk. 2 Connected the server to an always on power source to serve clients whenever. 3 Start the system (administrator) window. This way people can login from different points as clients. 4 Check the status of the firewall and update it accordingly to an enabled state. 5 Check whether antivirus is updated and if not update it accordingly. 6 Install intrusion detection software to encounter intrusions into the system. 7 Allow remote logging in of clients. 8 Always ensure there is enough disk space and memory for the smooth running of the system. Read More

In this regard, the wider scope of this project looks at all the processes and procedures to be put into use to ascertain these needs. Firstly, there is need assessment in order to understand the needs that need to be met. This will ensure that indeed the project is tied to the needs and is fully relevant to the situation or environment it is directed at. While there are many information systems out there this one is definitely meant to differ in the sense that the implementation mechanism and the overall stress load is going to be highly at recognizable levels hence the uniqueness of this project.

The system is to meet the issuance and receipt of books from the library with details regarding the return dates and. Therefore the basic functions of this project include the issuance and receipt of books, identification and management of risks that might arise due the practicability of the system since there are usually many risks associated with online systems when exposure into the real world is made. Therefore this project will highly emphasize on the procedures and the recommendations that are set to be met in the course of delivery and implementation of this system.

In addition, there will be aspects of security and discussion on what best approaches to follow in the implementation of the most effective and less susceptible system during the implementation phase. Project standards. According to many intranet standard, the contents of this system should be less wordy and be kept tight with a content management process that would the updating of content to current details. Secondly, all functions of html, should be tested and verified with the semantics of the systems also verified according to the accepted standards.

This will ensure that all the interfaces of the systems are full functional. User feedback is an unavoidable aspect in the testing of the standards of the system in tandem with accepted information systems standards The system will have all the pages linked back to the home page since all directories will have a home association which will give a short cut to many accesses in the system. Also, the directories should be tested on how they give a print view from a given browser with the navigation buttons back and forward enabled.

The system will be developed in accordance with the development standard that sees the development and testing of the system on the development servers. This should also incorporate the testing procedure of using at least five testers so that reliance on the system can be reassured. Copyright standards should be followed highly in the sense that all corporate policies or rules regarding the implementation of such systems would give reservation of the rights of those who use or developed the system.

Disclaimer in the headers section that gives the rights of usage of the system, that is for internal purposes only, should be made use of in connection to the legal standards. Applications of this type of system would ensure the use of LAN in the corporate sense and thus will have to follow all the requirements which specify communication protocols and the file transfers protocols available. Work breakdown structure. the work breakdown structure consists of the following steps; need identification- standard set up, tool collection, design, testing, implementation, maintenance and support.

Diagrammatically, this can be represented as follows; Diag1: A flowchart representation of the steps involved in system development. The work breakdown structure for all task. Task Duration Predecessor Start/finish Resources Costs. Convince Board 3days None 9 am14th – 4pm17th Board Meetings 200 Need Identification 3days 1 9am18th-5pm 21st Field work, interviews, simulation 250 System Design. 2days 1,2 9am21st-4pm23rd. 100 Design Implementation 7days 1,2,3 9am 24th -1st. 5pm programmers 1500 System Testing 2days.

1,2,3,4 9am 2nd -4pm 3rd. Staff, project manager 200 System Installation 1 day 1,2,3,4,5 9am 4th- 5pm 4th.

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