Implementation of Automated Library Management System in the School of Chemistry Bharathidasan University using Koha Open Source Software

Transcription

1 Implementation of Automated Library Management System in the School of Chemistry Bharathidasan University using Koha Open Source Software Neelakandan.B, Duraisekar. S, Balasubramani.R, Srinivasa Ragavan.S Department of library & Information science, Bharathidasan, University Tiruchirappalli , India ABSTRACT Library is a fast growing organism. The ancient methods of maintaining it are no longer dynamic and efficient. For expeditious retrieval and dissemination of information and better service for the clientele, application of modern techniques has become absolutely indispensable. A properly computerized library will help its users with quick and prompt services. Library automation refers to mechanization of library house keeping operations predominantly by computerization. Objectives of this study. To develop and updated database of Books and other Resources of the school of Chemistry Library, Bharathidasan University. to implement automated system using Koha Library Integrated Open Source Software.to carryout the charging and discharging functions of the circulation section more effectively.to provide various search options to know the availability of books in the Library.to generate the list of books due by a particular member and also the overdue charges. Koha is an integrated software system with all the required models for small to very large libraries. It is found that this automation projects will serve as a model for any library. Being an open source, any Library wanted to go for automation for their library house keeping operations can make use of this software. Keywords: Open source software, library management, automation in library. 1. Introduction Library is a fast growing organism. The ancient methods of maintaining it are no longer dynamic and efficient. For expeditious retrieval and dissemination of information and better service for the clientele, application of modern techniques has become absolutely indispensable. A properly computerized library will help its users with quick and prompt services. Library automation refers to mechanization of library house keeping operations predominantly by computerization. The most commonly known housekeeping operations are acquisition control, serials control, cataloguing, and classification and circulation control.library automation or Integrated Library System (ILS) is an enterprise resource planning systems for a library, used to tracks items owned, order made, bills paid etc. Since the advent to the term automation in , Plethoras of definitions are found in library literature. Sometimes the terms mechanization and automation Looked overlapped, although there is a different of one degree between the two. Automation is the name gives to an automation system of working Aim and objectives of the Study 149

2 The following are the objectives of this study. 1. To develop and updated database of Books and other Resources of the school of Chemistry Library, Bharathidasan University. 2. To implement automated system using Koha Library Integrated Open Source Software. 3. To carryout the charging and discharging functions of the circulation section more effectively. 4. To provide various search options to know the availability of books in the Library. 5. To generate the list of books due by a particular member and also the overdue charges Methodology Software:Libsys,winisis,easy,ibsoft,vtls,slim++,libasoft,Autolib,librarian,libsuit,rovan lms,nirmals.soul etc.,free and open source:newgenlib,koha,evergreen, ssh tunneled mysql replication.database dumps using the mysql dump utility,on the hardware level, the production system utilizes a two disk raid1 configuration for data redundancy in the event of single disk hardware failure. The system partitions use the file system, which provides another point of data redundancy Statement of Problem The present study aims to Implementation of Library Automation for the University Department Library and integrated that with University Central Library. The title is Implementation of Automated Library Management System in the School of Chemistry Bharathidasan University, Using Koha Open Source Software 1.5. Plan Of Action 1. Visited and observed of the School of Chemistry Library. 2. Taking the stock of the situation. 3. Physical exam of the books. 4. Bibliographic Data has been colleted and entered in excel sheet. 5. Classification humanities for all the books general devised and assessment visited Dewey Decimal classification (DDC) 21 st edition. The School of Chemistry Library following Books has been entered in Koha Software. 150

3 Table 1: Total number of books in the library Title Total Number of Books Call. No Organic Chemistry Inorganic Chemistry Physical Chemistry Analytical Chemistry Bio medical Bio Physics Bio Organic Bio Inorganic Bio Chemistry Chemical Engineering Computer Science Micro Biology Medical Science Kinetics Bioinformatics Hetero cyclic chemistry Materials Chemistry Encyclopedia of Chemistry Encyclopedia of Chemical Drugs Dictionary Molecular Biology Design and Implementation of Koha Softwear in The School of Chemistry Library 2.1. Home Page of Koha Home pages of Department of Chemistry Library so the all section is available this front page circulation (check in, Check out), patrons information, Search for the catalogues, Reports, Koha Administration link, tools, About Koha for all links available for the home page. 151

4 2.2. Administration Figure 1: Home page of Koha module Parameters administration is a very important feature of the intranet module of KOHA. Various default parameters can be changed using this functionality. It allows us to define different parameters for the functioning of KOHA like the library branches, book funds, currencies, item types, the categories of borrowers, the charges taken for the different types of items etc. System Preferences is the most important module of KOHA. It deals with administration and maintenance part of KOHA Library System. Only Chief Librarian, Chief Administrator or person of similar designation can hold access rights to this module. 152

5 Figure 2: System Preferences module There are two methods of acquisition in Koha one is Normal acquisition and other one is Simple acquisition. If we want to keep track of budget we have to follow Normal Acquisition and in Simple acquisition we aren t concerned with budget. Simple budget module is useful for smaller libraries where limited amount of money is allotted. Clicking on the acquisition link on the home page of intranet takes us to the page where new orders can be made and old ones can be modified. Here, we can verify the exchange rates and the budgets and book funds before going for a new order. It very clearly mentions the total budget, the amount that has been spent, and the available amount under each category 2.3.Making new order Here, the first step is to search for the suppliers who will deliver the book. The module allows us to search for the supplier in the acquisition module itself. 2.4.Book Fund Administration Figure 3: Add New Vendor module Figure 4: Budget and funds module 153

6 Budget and funds administration are the most difficult part of library job to be handled by a librarian. This module helps in that. It is another important functionality available, funds can be allotted to different item categories using this and we can even edit the already allotted funds. Following window appears after clicking on the link in the parameters. Here the details displayed are: Book Fund number/identifier, Name of the book fund, Budge total period and total budget allocated Adding Bibliography to KOHA The module is called marc biblio Framework. To create biblio record of a document, once goes to the catalogue search page and there we find link to add new biblio page. If we click on that link we reach the following page. Select the form of material Figure 7: Marc Biblio Framework module is displayed Below screen shows the bibliography screen to enter the details of the book. To ease the data entry work one marc record is divided into 0 to 9. We can click on the respective number to fill into the specific marc tags. For example, 0 will contain tags like 010, 020, 043, etc. This also makes the work of maintaining MARC tags. 154

7 Figure 8: Bibliographies information add module We have to just click on add biblio after finishing up with the details of the bibliographic item and the item get added to the list Adding new patrons When we click on the add Patrons link in the above search result, then the following form will appears which prompts us to fill in the member particulars, the KOHA system automatically allots one card number to the Patrons; however it can be changed later if need be. Once the details are filled in, then it prompts us to confirm the record mentioning the joining and expiry date for the Patrons ship, we can edit the details here if something has been written mistakenly. This information is shown only when the user sees his/her membership information in the OPAC (details discussed in the INTRANET module) Borrower categories It can be defined by clicking on the same link in the parameters window. i) We can edit or delete the details of a particular borrower type in the following window and we can even add new categories. 155

8 Select the patron type Figure 9: Selected patron type add module The second link on the main intranet window allows us to search for an existing member or add new Patrons as discussed below. Enter patron card number Figure 10: Patron card number enter full detail module These are mainly administrative jobs and at access should be given very carefully. Mostly Chief Librarian or Administrator is given access to this module. 156

9 2.8 Administrative Information about the Member (Patrons) Figure 11: Administrative information about the patron module The administrative information about the user can be seen by the librarian like the fines and charges attributed to a particular user, the items currently under issue etc. So, this utility can be used for finding out the details about a user, whenever required. The window shown in the below figure is a very useful feature of Koha s Patrons administration module. It gives comprehensive and detailed information about a user. Figure 12: Modification from the Patron module On the same screen options are given to modify Patrons details like deleting the member from the Patron s list, modifying details, changing password, and modifying user flags, which is nothing, but dealing with user permissions. 157

10 Figure 13: Deleting from the Patron module 2.9. Circulation Module The next important module is circulation module, here we can assign even the students themselves can renew the issued the documents on their name. Its main window looks like the following figure: Figure 14: Circulation module i) For the process of circulation, we have to enter either the borrower card number or the partial last name of the borrower, as shown in the above picture. ii) After entering the above information, it shows the patron information with his/her category and one hyperlink is also available to look into more details of the patron, if required. Along with this, if we want to issue any book, then the barcode of the book should be entered and the date of issue needs to be selected. 158

11 Enter patron card number Figure 15: Enter Patron Card Number Module Once a valid barcode number is entered and issue button is pressed, the following window appears that gives information about the issued item. Figure 16: Book Issue module 159

12 Figure 17: Book Issue (Checkout) of patron module Another important aspect of circulation is returning the borrowed items. The return option is there in the circulation window. When clicked it takes us to the above window, here, we give the barcode of the item to be returned. It shows the details of the borrowed item and the borrower as well, when the number is given and the enter key is pressed. Figure 18: Book Return (Check In) module 160

13 So enter the barcode book number (Acc.NO) full detail information (check in item) the following window is appear Accounts and Reports Section Figure 19: Book Check in Result Figure 20: Koha Reports module 161

14 This module contains the details regarding the over due, total amount paid, total amount written off. Here we can generate reports of users activities pertaining to books overdue, overdue fines, fines paid, fines due, etc About KOHA Module KOHA tools module Figure 21 : KOHA Tools module Koha tools mainly use to stage of MARC records for Bibliography and patron information import to export and than many functions to be use tools the label and patron card creator, uploading patron image, overdue notices so all functions available to the Koha tools modules. 162

15 Figure 22: OPAC enter title module OPAC models Figure 22 shows the details of advanced search. Here, we can search by Keywords, subject, title, author and even the barcode of the document. Below information searching for the title and get all information in books Figure 23: OPAC particular Title module Figure 24 Shows the OPAC Particular Title module. Here, we can the see title, author subject and Publication and copy available in which department is to be display also. 163

16 3. Outcome of the Study Based on this project at School of Chemistry library the following are the outcome of the study 1. Chemistry library collections are in single database 2. It gives the full control over the library collections and operations 3. Faculty members and research scholars can check the required books by the OPAC module 4. Research scholars and faculty members can check the status of their barrowed books 5. They can get the complete details about the books for their further reading and research 6. Data entry of the books can be done through the downloading of bibliographic details from Library of congress and other catalogues. 7. This library can share their data with various library are other department libraries. 4. Summary and Conclusion In this research work, a sincere attempt has been made towards finding out ways and means for automating activities in the School of Chemistry Library.The objective of this study is to use the Koha Open Source software system for the automation of the major dayto day activities of the various section of the School of Chemistry Library, which is tiresome and cumbersome. After the investigation, the researcher has found that Koha Software is more suitable for the library Automation.This project had the basic objective of designing a bibliographic database for the School of Chemistry library, with which the automation of circulation routines is carried out. From this point of view it may be concluded that Koha is a useful package for the creation of a database and for information retrieval.this set of Manuals for the automation of circulation section is tested with the database created from the collection of chemistry department library. A sample database for a few thousand works and a database of the users/borrowers are created. With that test sample the Manuals for each function of the circulation section is tested with the available computer system.koha is an integrated software system with all the required models for small to very large libraries. It is found that this automation projects will serve as a model for any library. Being an open source, any Library wanted to go for automation for their library house keeping operations can make use of this software. The following problems faced in implementation of automated library management system in the school of chemistry library. I. Lack of Infrastructure facility II. Lack of Environment support III. Lack of Financial Resources I. Lack of Infrastructure facility The Problems relating to infrastructure could be studied from the following angles Lack of Hardware Lack of Software Lack of Network facility Lack of Financial Resources 164

17 II. Lack of Environment support To environment problem are to be taken seriously by School of Chemistry Library. But this problem can be divided in to two categories: External and internal. Internal problem can be solved by the institution, but it may difficult to solve the external problem. The library is also on of the targets for environment problem. The problem can be identified related tom environmental are Power, lighting. But chemistry library to be implemented re charging batteries to anywhere to power supply in library. III. Lack of Financial Resources The university support for all departments to be allocated in books and racks only, but they are not to allot any fund for Automation software package, so free open software to be implementation in chemistry library.however, we have implemented this automation software on LINUX operating Systems with required other open source software. Even its open source it got very good feature and it can meet any library needs with latest technologies and it got very good forum to support the issues and developments. Hence we are recommending that if required libraries can go for automation without spending single money to get their library to automate all their operations and to meet the present and future technological trends. To conclude the researcher had explained in identify the issues, opportunities, challenges perfect to automate small libraries. If is found that Koha enable in systematic designing and examination of all library operations in automated environment. All the documents details and the member details of the School of Chemistry has been completed so us enable to have full fledged automation of the library and also thus easy to integrate the School of Chemistry Library with main library of the University. 4. References 1. Abraham, J. (1996), Computers in modernising Library Information System and Services: Perspectives of Library Automation, International Library Movement vol. 18, p3. 2. Abdul Azeez, T. A (2004), Tkm College of Engineering Library Automation System, Annals of Library & Information Studies, Vol. 51, no. 2, p Adanu, Theodosia S. A (2007), Planning and Implementation of the University of Ghana Library Automation Project, African Journal of Library, Archives & Information Science, Vol. 16, no. 2, p Breeding, Marshall (2009), Library Automation in a Difficult Economy, Computers in Libraries, Vol. 29, no. 3, p Breeding, Marshall (2009), Opening up Library Automation Software, Computers in Libraries, Vol. 29 no. 2, p Breeding, Marshall (2009) The Viability of Open Source ILS Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, Vol. 35.no.2, pp Breeding, Marshall (2009), Next Generation Library Automation: Its Impact on the Serials Community, Serials Librarian, Vol. 56, no. 1 4, p Bansode, Sadanand Y and Periera, Shamin (2008), A Survey of Library Automation in College Libraries in Goa State, India, Library Philosophy & Practice, Vol. 10, no. 2, p Bailey, Penny ( 2004), INTERNET, Interaction and Intelligence: Latest Developments in Library Automation, Managing Information, Vol. 11, no. 3, p

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