Library Management System

What is Library Management System?
An integrated library system (ILS), also known as a library management system (LMS), is an enterprise resource planning system for a library, used to track items owned, orders made, bills paid, and patrons who have borrowed. An ILS usually comprises a relational database, software to interact with that database, and two graphical user interfaces (one for patrons, one for staff). Most ILSes separate software functions into discrete programs called modules, each of them integrated with a unified interface.

Library Management System Challenges
Setting up access to content so that it’s easier to find and use – Access routes and all the various vendor platforms are a really complex landscape for both readers and the librarians who need to make sense of it all. Understanding how that content is used in their institution, and by whom – Librarians want to understand usage beyond what the current COUNTER reports deliver, eg. they want to know which articles are being read, in what disciplines, by which type of patron, in which faculty. Understanding their institution’s usage vs peer institutions – Is the usage their content is getting ‘good’ or ‘bad’ versus other institutions with a similar profile? What should be done to make it better? Demonstrating how the content they’ve bought has impacted on the outcomes of the institution – How can the library prove that it helped to produce a better student, bring in grant funding, make a discovery, secure a patent? Demonstrating the value proposition to those that hold the purse strings is really critical. How they can best present the nuances of licensing models to their patrons and upper management – Digital licensing models are complex and explaining these can be difficult to those who are not steeped in them.

Library Management System Attempts
Prior to computerization, library tasks were performed manually and independently from one another. Selectors ordered materials with ordering slips, cataloguers manually catalogued sources and indexed them with the card catalog system (in which all bibliographic data was kept on a single index card), fines were collected by local bailiffs, and users signed books out manually, indicating their name on clue cards which were then kept at the circulation desk. Early mechanization came in 1936, when the University of Texas began using a punch card system to manage library circulation.[3] While the punch card system allowed for more efficient tracking of loans, library services were far from being integrated, and no other library task was affected by this change.

Library Management System Solutions
By the mid to late 2000s, ILS vendors had increased not only the number of services offered but also their prices, leading to some dissatisfaction among many smaller libraries. At the same time, open source ILS was in its early stages of testing. Some libraries began turning to such open source ILSs as Koha and Evergreen. Common reasons noted were to avoid vendor lock in, avoid license fees, and participate in software development. Freedom from vendors also allowed libraries to prioritize needs according to urgency, as opposed to what their vendor can offer. Libraries which have moved to open source ILS have found that vendors are now more likely to provide quality service in order to continue a partnership since they no longer have the power of owning the ILS software and tying down libraries to strict contracts. This has been the case with the SCLENDS consortium.

Library Management System Usefulness

It is a well organized software for a library.
It has database which is constantly managed and updated.
It provides information on any book present in library.
It keeps a track of books issued, returned and added to library.