1.1 Introduction
The term “Virtual Library” emanates from Virtual Reality; the virtual reality is a system that enables one or more users to look, more, and react in a computer-simulated world. Various types of interface devices allow users to have the illusory experiences of seeing, touching, picking up, and even manipulating virtual (simulated) objects. Virtual worlds and everything in them, (including computer images of the participants) are represented by mathematical models and computer programs. A library can be seen as a room, building or institution where a collection of books or other research materials is kept or a collection of books, newspapers, records, tapes, or other materials that are valuable for research or a collection of things for use on a computer, for example programs or diskettes, or a collection of routines or instructions used by a computer program. But, may looking at all this our main aim on this project is to make a library look virtual; thereby making the collection of books and other research materials to be in electronics form, for global access across the globe term “Virtual Library”.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
The Virtual Library is currently developing, as the society becomes more dependent on technology to store and obtain information quickly and effectively, there has been increasing concern in how easy access can be made to books for research, or having unhindered access to store information about research work or knowledge.
The Internet is its ever-evolving state is becoming a serious method of business communication and data transfer worldwide. As students and other institutions and organizations beginning to use the Internet as a new method for awareness creation and information search, then there comes a need for a website that will provide them with the comprehensive list of all the research materials they need. This was what motivated us into embarking on this research work.
The word Virtual means many things to many people, but according to Encarta Encyclopedia: Virtual means being something in effect even if not in reality or not conforming to the general accepted definition of term. Again it can be seen as used to describe a particle whose existence is suggested to explain observed phenomena but is not proved or directly observable. Finally, it can be seen as simulated by a computer for reasons of economics, convenience, or performance.
Information Technology is able to facilitate the revolution of changes, which optimize performance and profitability to companies because it provides solution to one of the key business and communication barriers; distance and difficulties associated with crossing them. Emergence of Internet and its technologies has led to the death of distance and collapsed the entire world into a “Global Village”.
The history of the Virtual Library Management System could date back to the late 1960s. At that time, computer technology had entered the practical stage. Meanwhile in most large-scale libraries, it’s very time-consuming and easy to make mistakes to find books or statistical information manually. In order to solve this situation, the first generation of book lending management system came into being. But due to the immature technical conditions and the constraints of demands, the user was very small. There was no doubt that its appearance showed a bright future for the management of book lending, that is, with the computer’s high speed and automation to replace the huge amount of manual work and with the computer’s high accuracy to avoid manual mistakes and errors.
The second generation of the Virtual Library Management System appeared in the late 1970s. On account of the rapid development of computer technology, whether the popularity of computers, or the developments of computer system tools and database technology, it provided the possibility for the phasic development of library lending management system. But it failed to systematically consider the needs and concepts of book borrowing.
The revolutionary change in the Virtual Library Management System occurred in the late 1990s. With the information explosion and the arrival of the era of knowledge-driven economy, individuals, units and social had a higher demand on Virtual Library Management System. In the meantime, due to the pullulating of database technology, customer/server technology, especially Internet/Intranet technology, the third generation of books borrowing management system had become inevitable.
The third generation of Virtual Library Management System was characterized by the angle of book borrowing management, it dealt with almost all data related to the book lending with a centralized database. The friendly user interface, powerful report generation tools, analysis tools and information sharing allowed managers to get rid of heavy daily work and focus on planning and policies of book lending from a strategic perspective.
Effective and efficient management and control of library materials/stock has posed huge difficulties to libraries at different level over the years, the high magnitude of material/textbooks theft, the general inconvenience experience by both the users of the library and management as well. The e-library environment which will be implemented at the end of this research work will bring great relief to the general world of research as it regards library and the control of its stock/materials electronically.
1.3 Statement of Problem
Investigation reveals the problems of the encountered in the manual Virtual Library Management System in institutions include:
- Lack of comprehensive database for book stocked in the library,
- Poor determination books due and overdue,
- Lack of verifiable borrowed material from the borrowers (student and staff)
- Stress to the library attendance to attended the users
- Lack of effectiveness in their methods of record keeping, further compounds the problem.
In Nigeria as a developing country, most institutions and large organization are not yet able to create or setup standard library for their organizations especially schools (higher school in the country), thereby making it difficult for their members to have access to research data and valuable materials.
It also limits them from knowing what is happening in the globe. It is likely one of the major cause or out-dated knowledge that students suffer in institution of higher learning in Nigeria. To cope with high pace technology in this information age, the researcher is prompted to provide an effective channel or medium that will serve as a virtual library through which university students and organization of different kind can have access in any-part of the world for retrieving information and for their knowledge update.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of this study is to design software that will Design and implement a Virtual Library System. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows to design and develop a software that will:
- Provide the globe with Virtual Library where they will go in need of vital and research information;
- Create a Virtual Library that will be easily updated;
- Minimize research time and make it more efficient;
- Setup a Virtual Library where electronics books will be centralized;
- Reduce the verbal words between the library users and the attendance; and
- Improve the academic and computerized knowledge base of both users of the library and librarians.
1.5 Significance of the Study
The following are the relevance of the research work, which is stated as follows:
- It would help minimize the time of search to find the information of the particular text.
- The virtual system will be a user friendly system.
- It would create convenience to the library attendance/librarian.
- Cataloging of textbooks would be made easy.
- It would help the government and school management to save more funds.
This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.6 Scope of the Study
This research works covers the implementation of a Virtual Library System that will be used to monitor inflow and outflow of library materials in other to curtail thievery/theft.
The Virtual Library Management System runs on the Windows system, According to the characteristics of the system, we construct the development model and then build structural analysis, system function modules and system flow chart through the demand analysis of the system.
1.7 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials
1.8 Definition of Terms
It has become necessary to define some of the technical terms used in their work as this will help to make the work easily understood to many lay-people, in other professions.
Library: It is a department in an organization that deals with keeping tracks of book issued, returned and added to library.
Management: It is the co-ordination of all the resources of an Organization through the process of planning, Organization, directing and controlling
Statistical: A fact or piece of information obtained by studying numerical data.
Catalogue: A list of items in systematic order.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language): The formatting language that makes use of tags to specify how text and other item will be displayed in the browser.
Home Page: The starting point for a web site, usually the first or main page displayed upon visiting a site.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol): A protocol and a program used to transfer files between computer on network or Internet.
