CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

A library can be defined as a room or building in which books are kept and consulted, and it is an area of many different activities connected with the management of books. A library is a repository of knowledge. It houses collections of books, both reference and general, as well as technical reports, periodicals, journals, conference proceedings and similar materials. Truth and knowledge can therefore be found and acquired from the library through these sources. The information content of any of these collections can also be recorded on microfilm, audiotape, microchips and other media traditionally kept in the library. The library is charged with acquiring, organising, maintaining and judiciously circulating books and other library materials through its various sections, so that users can make efficient use of it.

The acquisition, cataloguing, bindery and circulation sections of the library undertake the acquiring, organising, maintaining and circulation of books and library materials respectively. When the library acquires a book through the acquisition section, a record of it is taken and an accession number is assigned. The book is then sent to the cataloguing section, where it is carefully studied and given a catalogue number before it passes to the circulation section. The circulation section is responsible for the circulation, or distribution, of books.

The circulation section also arranges consulted books on the shelves. Other sections include the reference section, which provides answers to reference questions and bibliographic services, and the serials section, where periodicals, journals and related materials are kept. The library also houses special collections and operates circulation control, through which books are lent to users. It is, indeed, a place of many activities connected with book management.

In recent years, libraries have increasingly turned to computers and web technologies to carry out these activities. Library automation is the application of computers and related machines to library operations, and the web public access catalogue (Web PAC) now allows users to reach library services remotely (Ojo & Otunla, 2018). Studies in Nigeria show that users prefer an automated library system to a manual one and that automation improves operations and information services (Otunla & Akanmu-Adeyemo, 2010). Mobile library management systems have also been developed to let librarians manage library processes irrespective of time and place (Eke & Salihu, 2021). Even so, the functions of library management software remain heavily under-used in many academic libraries in Nigeria (Emasealu, 2019).

1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Human endeavour continues to produce new developments, research and discoveries, which result in a large and growing volume of publications and library materials. This has increased the complexity of library management and its operations.

As a result, library management faces a number of problems, which include:

(i) Unnecessary delay in library processes. Manual library management is associated with long and unnecessary queues at the circulation desk, for example during user registration and the borrowing and returning of materials (Eke & Salihu, 2021).

(ii) High cost of staff recruitment and maintenance. Libraries that attempt automation also report insufficient staff and insufficient funds to maintain automation projects, together with erratic power supply (Ojo & Otunla, 2018).

1.3 AIM OF THE STUDY

This project aims to create and develop a mobile and web application for the automation of library tasks. In developing the web application for the school library, every effort will be made to ensure the accuracy, completeness, robustness and long-term consistency of the identifiers used, because any error in an identifier will result in wrongly matched records in the library system (Christen, 2012).

1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH

1. A common entity identifier will be used in the database for matching records. Where attributes contain only partially identifying information, such as the name of the publisher, the place of publication and the date of publication, these will be used for matching, and the name and brief details of the author may also be used. This follows the established practice in record linkage of comparing several attributes of a record when no single unique identifier is available (Fellegi & Sunter, 1969; Christen, 2012).
2. Instead of designing a special survey to collect new data for decisions, data from available book sources will be matched. This has potential advantages because existing sources often contain a greater amount of data, and their data may be more accurate as a result of corrections made over a period of years (Christen, 2012).
3. To develop a system that ensures that anybody, from anywhere, can access the books in the library.

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The significance of the study justifies the need to carry it out. It identifies the groups of people who will benefit from it. They are:

i. Students: The study will help students become knowledgeable as they enter the information technology field by applying what they learn in lectures to a real system, and it will show them an easy way of accessing library contents.

ii. Faculty: The proposed system will lessen their workload and reduce the time spent handling library processes. It will minimise the effort and time they spend gathering information about books.

iii. Administrators: The results of the investigation will serve as a benchmark for handling book records more easily. They will lessen administrators' workload and provide a fast way of arranging and matching books.

iv. Future researchers: The study will serve as a handy reference for other researchers who embark on similar studies in the future, especially on aspects that the present study does not cover.

1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The research sets out how a mobile system can be developed to carry out library tasks. Because the system is also a web application, it will make it possible for people far and near to have access to the books in the library.

1.7 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

The project is organized as follows:

Chapter one introduces the project and discusses its background. It also presents the statement of the problem, the objectives, the significance and the scope of the project.

Chapter two gives a brief review of literature on library tasks.

Chapter three discusses system analysis and design. It deals with the detailed investigation and analysis of the existing system and with problem identification.

Chapter four covers system implementation, testing and integration.

Chapter five presents the summary of findings, the constraints of the project, the conclusion and the recommendations. References, Appendix A and Appendix B follow chapter five.

1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Automation: The technology by which a process or procedure is performed with minimum human assistance. Automation, or automatic control, is the use of various control systems to operate equipment such as machinery, processes in factories, boilers and heat-treating ovens, telephone network switching, and the steering and stabilisation of ships, aircraft and other vehicles, with minimal or reduced human intervention.

Library: A collection of sources of information and similar resources, made accessible to a defined community for reference or borrowing. It provides physical or digital access to material and may be a physical building or room, a virtual space, or both. A library's collection can include books, periodicals, newspapers, manuscripts, films, maps, prints, documents, microforms, CDs, cassettes, videotapes, DVDs, Blu-ray discs, e-books, audiobooks, databases and other formats.

World Wide Web: Also known as the WWW or the Web, an information space in which documents and other web resources are identified by Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), interlinked by hypertext links, and accessible via the Internet.

System: A collection of interacting and interdependent components that work together to achieve a goal.

Matched records: Two or more records that have been brought together because they are judged to refer to the same entity (Christen, 2012).

Name tokens: The components of a full or raw name, such as the family name, first given name or title.

Application: The final combination of software and hardware that performs the data matching.

References

Christen, P. (2012). Data matching: Concepts and techniques for record linkage, entity resolution, and duplicate detection. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31164-2

Eke, N. O., & Salihu, I. A. (2021). Design and implementation of a mobile library management system for improving service delivery. Path of Science, 7(4), 3001–3010.

Emasealu, H. U. (2019). Automation of academic libraries and web development: A reverie or reality. International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology, 9(1), 43–56.

Fellegi, I. P., & Sunter, A. B. (1969). A theory for record linkage. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 64(328), 1183–1210.

Ojo, R. A., & Otunla, A. O. (2018). Automation efforts in public and privately owned university libraries in the South-West of Nigeria. University of Ibadan Journal of Library and Information Science, 1(1), 43–61.

Otunla, A. O., & Akanmu-Adeyemo, E. A. (2010). Library automation in Nigeria: Bowen University Library experience. African Journal of Library, Archives and Information Science, 20(2).