Even in this era of Amazon Kindle, public and private libraries have managed to maintain their relevance. They are still considered bastions for workforce development, community engagement, and learning about the country’s rich cultural heritage in developing nations.
Libraries serve the public with culturally and historically significant books, e-books, journals, low-cost printing/scanning service, and free access to Wi-Fi internet. They offer a massive collection of photos, videos, and hardcopies of historical newspapers. Libraries have hard copies of the latest books, novels on a rental basis.
Public libraries are funded by the local, state, central government schools, colleges, or universities. A library operated by the university is considered a gold mine by scientists and researchers as such places offer exclusive access to research work and related documents.
Digital Book Stores May Not Replace Physical Libraries Anytime Sooner
The online reading experience has a set of limitations. Some readers do not appreciate reading long texts on the phone screen. Subscription charges for digital bookstores and audiobook libraries remain high in developed as well as developing countries. Everyone would not be able to afford the same.
But, serving the vulnerable population with books is one of the primary aims of libraries. Rather than making money, they aim to educate the public.
Library Management Software Solutions Make Life Easy For Librarians
Librarians are responsible for maintaining a proper record for books issued, reissued, and those not returned by the members. Procedures like keeping reference numbers, cataloging, and the acquisition were never so easy for librarians before the arrival of LMS.
ILS (integrated library system) or LMS (library management system) helps librarians, as well as library users’ in checking the availability of books within seconds. The software enables librarians as well as members to search books by their author’s name, category, publication house, popularity level, and of course, the book’s title. It also assists in the calculation of fines for members returning their books later than scheduled.
A digital library management system can be suitable for both large and small libraries. The software offers an intuitive interface for users. A single computer and a couple of sensors can be enough to run the operations.
The management software solution eliminates the need to create and manage multiple files for record-keeping. Day-to-day processes are taken care of by automation, so, human resource need remains lesser.
The advanced library management system helps in reducing the operational costs and enables librarians to serve book lovers even better.
Libraries Adopting Latest Technologies
Every library has modernized during the last few years. A digital library management system automates several complex procedures that a librarian has to perform daily.
Until the last decade, librarians were responsible for managing check-in and check-out registers. Thus, persons in charge of various bookshelves often felt stressed at the end of their shift. That’s history. There is no need for members of the library staff to manually check hundreds of shelves while trying to find the physical copy of books or other documents. These days the barcode scanner integrated with the LMS can mark check-in and check-out when members use their library card at the entrance.
Physical copies of books and library cards issued to members contain barcodes or a chip to store information. LMS can scan the barcode on magazines, books, documents, and enter the book submission date for the same. Members can use their mobile devices to search for the hard copies of their choice in the library catalog and reserve the books before visiting the library.
LMS’s user-friendly interface can offer multiple language support for library visitors. Members can log in using their membership card, mobile number, or even their social media account. The system allows book readers to submit a review after thoroughly reading the same.
LMS are program to work with a cloud database enabling members to access the library’s collection of e-books, documents from anywhere around the world with a simple internet connection. It is one of the most crucial library management system features. Members logging in digitally to access e-books and PDFs can use the payment gateway on the library website.
Storing Accurate Contact Details For All The Members
Libraries attached to universities and research labs share exclusive documents and case studies with their members. Librarians do not have to worry if documents are issued in self-destruct PDF or in any other digital document format with an expiry date. But, due dates matter a lot when it comes to research work rendered in the form of notes, hard copies.
Maintaining updated contact details for members before issuing hard copies of unique books or documents is crucial as the information can be used for contacting the person at a later stage if he or she does not return the book or materials as per schedule. LMS helps in doing that. While enrolling for membership, the software completes the verification using a one-time authorization code sent on the member’s mobile number.
If you are searching for a software vendor with experience in developing and deploying library management solutions, you should consider discussing your needs with MyEdu and get the best features in the proposed system for library management.
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