Design A Library Management System
Design A Library Management System
System Requirements
Use case diagram
Class diagram
Activity diagrams
System Requirements
A Library Management System is a software built to handle the primary housekeeping functions
of a library. Libraries rely on library management systems to manage asset collections as well as
relationships with their members. Library management systems help libraries keep track of the
books and their checkouts, as well as members’ subscriptions and profiles.
Library management systems also involve maintaining the database for entering new books and
recording books that have been borrowed with their respective due dates.
We will focus on the following set of requirements while designing the Library Management
System:
1. Any library member should be able to search books by their title, author, subject category
as well by the publication date.
2. Each book will have a unique identification number and other details including a rack
number which will help to physically locate the book.
3. There could be more than one copy of a book, and library members should be able to
check-out and reserve any copy. We will call each copy of a book, a book item.
4. The system should be able to retrieve information like who took a particular book or what
are the books checked-out by a specific library member.
5. There should be a maximum limit (5) on how many books a member can check-out.
6. There should be a maximum limit (10) on how many days a member can keep a book.
7. The system should be able to collect fines for books returned after the due date.
8. Members should be able to reserve books that are not currently available.
9. The system should be able to send notifications whenever the reserved books become
available, as well as when the book is not returned within the due date.
10. Each book and member card will have a unique barcode. The system will be able to read
barcodes from books and members’ library cards.
Librarian: Mainly responsible for adding and modifying books, book items, and users.
The Librarian can also issue, reserve, and return book items.
Member: All members can search the catalog, as well as check-out, reserve, renew, and
return a book.
System: Mainly responsible for sending notifications for overdue books, canceled
reservations, etc.
Here are the top use cases of the Library Management System:
Library: The central part of the organization for which this software has been designed.
It has attributes like ‘Name’ to distinguish it from any other libraries and ‘Address’ to
describe its location.
Book: The basic building block of the system. Every book will have ISBN, Title,
Subject, Publishers, etc.
BookItem: Any book can have multiple copies, each copy will be considered a book
item in our system. Each book item will have a unique barcode.
Account: We will have two types of accounts in the system, one will be a general
member, and the other will be a librarian.
LibraryCard: Each library user will be issued a library card, which will be used to
identify users while issuing or returning books.
BookReservation: Responsible for managing reservations against book items.
BookLending: Manage the checking-out of book items.
Catalog: Catalogs contain list of books sorted on certain criteria. Our system will support
searching through four catalogs: Title, Author, Subject, and Publish-date.
Fine: This class will be responsible for calculating and collecting fines from library
members.
Author: This class will encapsulate a book author.
Rack: Books will be placed on racks. Each rack will be identified by a rack number and
will have a location identifier to describe the physical location of the rack in the library.
Notification: This class will take care of sending notifications to library members.
Check-out a book: Any library member or librarian can perform this activity. Here are the set of
Return a book: Any library member or librarian can perform this activity. The system will
collect fines from members if they return books after the due date. Here are the steps for
returning a book:
Renew a book: While renewing (re-issuing) a book, the system will check for fines and see if
any other member has not reserved the same book, in that case the book item cannot be renewed.