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Software OVERVIEW
"Mirror for library automation" is the prime
mission of infometrics, a company engaged in providing education, training, consultancy
and software. Its continuous growth for the last 08 years has made Mirror a
defacto standard for libraries.
With an open system architecture since its
inception and its continuous transition from a host multi-user system to Client-Server
implementation makes Mirror an
advanced multidimensional library and Information Management system. A powerful
and user friendly Web-OPAC makes it an outstanding choice for a Library and
Information Management system.
Mirror is
an Integrated Library and Information Management Software covering almost all
the functions of a library in the following areas:
·
Acquisition
·
Cataloguing
·
Circulation
·
Serials
Management (Journal)
·
OPAC
(Online Public Access Catalogue)
·
Searching
(Integrated Search Engine)
·
Reporting
·
Digital
Resources Management/Digital Library
Mirror supports
both print and non-print materials. It has various formats to describe each
material type, using different fields.
Mirror supports
google like free text searching. The bibliographic database searching is integrated
with the Circulation and Cataloguing operations.
In circulation operations, bar-code technology may be employed for identification of
both borrowers and materials. Mirror implements
security by allowing access through passwords. Security is provided for the
user as well as for the library staff. For the staff, access can be controlled
even at the function level. The PHP based interface in Mirror Web OPAC provides an effective gateway to
Internet and Intranet.
Mirror is
a powerful software written in `Visual Basic’ and 'PHP' providing extremely
user-friendly interface during operations. It uses SQL Server as back-end
RDBMS. Full Graphical User Interface (GUI) front-end is provided for the
windows client.
Incorporating new developments in Information
Technology is a norm at Mirror. It supports a wide
spectrum of hardware / software platforms in Client-Server environment
Features & FUNCTIONS
-
Able
to store unlimited bibliographical data of all types of library resources.
-
Able
to store library members’ information with photographs and signature.
-
Automatic
loan and refund register facility.
-
Supports
bar-coded identification of library resources and library members.
-
Customizable
criteria for loaning, refunding and fining as per administrator's own choice (i.e.
number of books to be loaned to a user at a time, how long a member can keep a
book to him, if needed automatic fine counting in case of failing to refund the
book in time etc.).
-
Able
to avoid duplicate bibliographic entry.
-
Able
to input multiple copies of Book of a title at a time.
-
Able
to print Barcode labels both for books and users.
-
Able
to print Book Card & pocket, catalogue card and book labels.
-
Able
to block particular user/defaulter.
-
Able
to Print Clearance Letter to the user.
-
Able
to generate list of defaulters and send letters to the defaulters
automatically.
-
Online
Public Access Catalogue (OPAC).
-
Able
to input data from multiple workstations at the same time.
-
Able
to input and display contents of books and abstracts of Articles of Journals.
-
Strong
in built search engine (word based Google like free searching and operator
based advanced searching).
-
Able
to assign status of book (i.e. lost, damaged, withdrawn etc.) and generate
management report accordingly.
-
Wide
range of reporting facilities as per requirement of the user.
-
User
friendly easy operation environment.
-
Flexibility
for defining different new user and user groups, setting permissions for them.
-
Flexibility
for defining membership durations, material type, entry type, different
department and designation.
-
Flexibility
for defining acquisition method and set language.
-
Different
interface for administrator, operator and average user.
-
Authentication
systems for different level of users & Administrator.
-
Full
accessible computerized catalogue with multiple searching facilities.
-
Changeable
password protection to the database.
-
100%
installation and training support and proper working guarantee.
-
RFID
(Radio Frequency Identification) compatible.
-
Client-Server
model.
-
User-friendly
Windows GUI.
-
Supports
TCP/IP for Communication.
-
Effective
data management on the desktop application module.
-
Flexible
reporting and query.
-
Authorization
and processing.
-
Data
exchange and export options.
-
Data
security and backup.
-
Caution
Money & Security Money Deposit Option.
-
Accession Register
Printing
Products & MODULES
Presently Mirror is available as following two products:
Mirror
-pro: A standard product with full-fledged
functionalities as usually required in universities, large academic institution,
special libraries, public libraries, etc.
Mirror
-light: A
downsized product derived from Mirror-pro for
corporate, colleges and school libraries where some special functionality may
not be required. However Mirror-light adequately
meets the requirement of a modern growing library.
Both Mirror-pro and Mirror-light can be implemented in
Client-Server mode providing complete range of features expected from any
advanced library system.
An effective workflow is provided through
following integrated systems:-
4.1 Acquisition
4.2 Cataloguing
4.3 Circulation
4.4 Serials Management (Journal)
4.5 OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue)
4.6 Searching (Integrated Search Engine)
4.7 Reporting
4.8 Digital Library
4.1
Acquisition
The Acquisition System of Mirror deals with selection and ordering of books
and other library materials such as reprints of articles, micro-fiche,
audio-visual tapes, maps, etc., and their subsequent procurement including processing
of bills for payment. It also provides a precise budget analysis at any point
of time. The data flow in acquisition system is accompanied by its various
functions as follows:
Ø
Initiate Titles for Ordering - Titles may either be
requested by patrons or received 'on approval' from vendors or initiated by the
library.
—
Checks
for duplication of title.
—
No
need to re-enter data for ordering additional copies or new edition of an
existing titles.
Ø
Approval Process - Involves printing of approval lists and
subsequent updation of the status of each title as 'Approved' or 'Rejected'.
—
Flexibility
in including specific titles in an approval form.
—
Amendments
in approval list prior to its printing.
—
Categorization
of titles in approval list by subjects.
Ø
Placing Order - Both firm orders for titles requisitioned by
staff and also material received earlier 'on approval'.
—
Prints
purchase orders for direct mailing or for electronic transmission to the
vendor.
—
Flexibility
to include specific approved titles in an order, or of single publisher or
vendor.
—
Amendment
/ Cancellation of order.
—
Facility
to specify special delivery instructions.
Ø
Receiving - Procedure to record the details of items received
—
Maintains,
for subsequent accessioning, an in-process file of items received 'on approval'
and items ordered.
Ø
Invoice Processing - Includes accessioning of items
—
Permits
more than one invoice for an order.
—
Allows
changes in unit price, discount, exchange rate, etc.
—
Accession
number can either be generated automatically by the system or it can be a
user-defined number.
—
Keeps
up-to-date status of titles ordered, received, accessioned.
—
Option
to accession before invoicing; or accession and invoice together or invoice
prior to accessioning.
—
Option
to generate bar code labels of required size for sticking on material.
Ø
Payments Requisition - Provides an effective procedure for getting
sanctions from the Accounts section for making payment to vendors or generating
requisition to account section for making payment directly to vendor.
Ø
Order Follow-Up - For specific titles on order, or for an
entire order
—
Periodic
overdue notices/reminders.
—
Online
printing of follow-up notices.
Ø
Online Queries - Acquisition related enquiries include
—
Titles
in the process of acquisition.
—
Pending
orders, overdue orders and, for the specific order, details of titles ordered,
titles received, pending titles, its invoice.
—
List
by vendors; giving titles received 'on approval', pending titles against firm
orders, orders placed, invoices received.
—
Order
details by Accession number.
—
New
arrivals.
Ø
Reports - Various reports generated by the acquisition system include
—
Approval
request form
—
Purchase
order
—
Overdue/Follow-up
notice
—
List
of titles on order
—
Accession
register
—
Bill
register
—
List
of recent arrivals, etc
4.2
Cataloguing
Mirror is
built around its own centralized bibliographic database based on MARC format supporting
different types of materials, print and non-print. It makes the various
catalogues/indexes available on-line for instant reference and thus enables
searching on subjects and key words. The capabilities of Mirror cataloguing system include:
Ø
Catalogue Production - Bibliographic data may be imported or can
be entered in well-designed screens for various user-defined types of
materials.
—
Data
may be entered directly for titles not coming through Acquisition.
—
No
limit on field size.
Ø
Catalogue Maintenance - Allows changes in bibliographic data
including data removal facility.
Ø
Bar Code Printing - Mirror has
an in-built utility, which facilitates printing of Bar code labels for identification
of books, Users and other materials.
Ø
Holdings Updates - Provision to specify copies for reference
or for circulation.
—
Addition
of new copies.
—
Transferring
from reference to circulation and vice-versa.
—
Withdrawals
or de-accessioning of copies.
Ø
Holdings Summary - A feature of great value in collection
development, the summary can be generated in user-defined ranges of call
numbers.
—
Gives
separate count of titles and volumes.
—
Reflects
strength and weakness of particular subject area.
Ø
Catalogue Cards - Prints complete set of 3x5 cards as per
AACR-2 standards.
Ø
Spine Slips - Containing Class no. and Accession no. of books and
other materials.
Ø
Current Awareness Services - Targeted to cater even to
specialized interests of patrons
—
List
of recent arrivals.
—
Special
bibliographies.
—
SDI
facility.
List may either be in alphabetical order by
author, title or classified under subject with further option to use codes for
deeper classification.
4.3
Circulation
The Circulation System of Mirror maintains up-to-date membership records and
the latest status of the collection meant for circulation. It performs all the
front desk operations related to lending, providing suitable checks at every
stage. It takes care of infrequent, but routine functions such as bindery
record management, display of recent additions, and so on. Various functions in
circulation include:
Ø
Front Desk Operations - Include issues, renewals, returns,
reserves/holds.
—
Operations
handled efficiently with least possible data entry
—
Suitable
blocks both on member and item
—
Use
of bar code
—
Option
to display photograph of the member
—
Issuance
of Clearance Letter(s) for user(s)
—
User
blocking/ restriction system
—
Caution
Money or Security Money deposit option
—
Binding
management
Ø
Membership Records Keeping - Registration record and membership
updates.
—
Option
to photograph from digital camera and generate an ID card of required size with
photograph and bar-code number corresponding to that of the member
—
Lost
or stolen cards are invalidated immediately
—
Issuance
of duplicate membership cards
—
Delinquent
member record with user defined reasons to indicate delinquency
—
Institutional
borrower records for inter-library loans
Ø
Collection Updates - Collection records meant for circulation
created automatically while cataloguing.
—
Keeps
track of lost, damaged, written-off/withdrawn items
—
Monitoring
of items on display and in bindery
Ø
Overdue Follow-up and Recalls-Generates overdue reminders and makes
possible recalling checked out material before the due date.
—
Number
of reminders and period between reminders based on membership category.
—
Online
printing of recall notice for a specific title.
Ø
Stock Verification - Generates list of the collection in the
library and items currently checked out. For the purpose of stock verification,
there is simple procedure to record the material present on shelf otherwise verified,
thus, getting the list of material not accounted for.
Ø
Flexible Operations - Fully parametrically driven operations. No
schemes are preset or unalterable.
—
Allows
effective use of barcode Technology for capturing member ID and item number.
—
Operations
based on membership categories and material types
—
Due
dates given after taking into account user defined working-days pattern and the
holidays calendar
Ø
Management Reporting - Both routine and exceptional reports, which
can be of great help in decision making, can be generated.
—
List
of highly reserved titles and comparison with present no. of copies in
collection for planning future acquisition
—
Title/Borrower-wise
statistics in relation to the number of check-outs
—
List
of delinquent member with pertinent reasons for declaring them so
—
Non-circulating
material list for weeding out the collection periodically
—
Overall
circulating statistics broken down further yearly/monthly/hourly, by subjects
and borrower category
Ø
Online Queries - There are comprehensive enquiry facilities
based on both borrowers and collections. Circulation statistics can be
generated both by subject and membership category.
Ø
Reports - The system provides for the following reports.
—
Overdue,
collect, and recall notices
—
List
of 'no responses'
—
List
of highly reserved titles
—
List
of non-circulating material
—
Checkouts
to a borrower
—
Stock
verification list
—
Statistics
on no. of issues by specific title/borrower
—
Statistics
by subject/borrower category
Ø
Transactions Log - Maintains a record of all the circulation
related transactions, which may either be viewed on screen or printed.
4.4
Serial Management
The Serials System of Mirror provides control on journals subscription and
subsequent monitoring of the scheduled arrival of individual issues. Its various
functions include:
Ø
New Subscription - New serials initiated.
Ø
Receiving Issues - A tedious and repetitive function performed
in the simplest manner.
—
Well
designed screens requiring entry of minimum possible data
—
Recording
of issues by volume/issue number or date, whichever applicable for the serial
—
Facility
to record receipt of regular issues, various indexes, special issues and
additional issues
Ø
Bindery Management - Alerts when a serial is ready for binding
and provides for its continued monitoring through the bindery and back.
—
Generates
volumes completion report to initiate binding process
—
Flexibility
in generating the bindery order
—
Keeps
track of volumes sent to bindery and their receipt on/when return
Ø
Bound Volumes Recording - Permits updating of the complete serials
collection of a library.
Ø
Routing and Circulation - User-defined routing of issues registered,
along with circulation of bound volumes and loose issues.
—
Routing
of an issue immediately on arrival may be defined, before it is displayed or
circulated
—
Integrated
with the circulation module
—
Overdue
reminders
Ø
Reports - Reports generated by Serial System include
—
List
of completed volumes
—
Bindery
order
—
Accession
register (for bound volume collection)
—
Current
arrival
—
Classified
and specialized indexes and lists of serials, as required
4.5
OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue)
Ø
Online Catalogues Searches - The Patrons in the library can
search the bibliographic database and find specific information online. The
search facility also apprises the user about the availability of each item for circulation,
including current status of individual copies of a title and reserve status. It
also shows titles on order displaying current status in acquisition.
Ø
Transaction History – The users can search their transaction
history, overdue status, fines etc.
Ø
Recent Additions - Makes available new additions to the
library.
Ø
Multiple Databases - Mirror supports
defining multiple databases based on types of documents for searching in OPAC.
Ø
Other services from OPAC Client - Updating subject
interest profile for SDI by users themselves; request for acquisition of a
document; while browsing / searching various catalogues, facility to develop request
online for putting a specific title on reserve, etc. Mirror provides advance GUI interface both on windows
and browser based to accomplish above.
Ø
Online Requisition
Ø
Online Reservation
Ø
E-Tendering
4.6
Searching (Integrated Search Engine)
Mirror has Basic &
Advanced Search facilities. It has word based Google like free text searching facilities.
There is option to conduct searches on specific bibliographic fields or on all
the fields. The search can be limited by specific document type. The search
results may either be viewed on screen or printed or downloaded on a diskette.
4.7
Reporting
Both routine and exceptional reports, which
can be of great help in decision-making, can be generated. The system provides
the following reports.
- Summary Report of Available
Book(s)/NBM(s)
- Report of Available
Book(s)/NBM(s)
- Report of Damaged Book(s)/NBM(s)
- Report of Lost Book(s)/NBM(s)
- Report of Book(s)/NBM(s) to be
Written off / Withdrawn
- Report of Total Written off /
Withdrawn Book(s)/NBM(s)
- Report of Overdue Book(s)/NBM(s)
- Acknowledgement Receipt
- Purchase Report of Book(s)/NBM(s)
- Book transaction history for a
certain period (i.e. total Book(s)/NBM(s) issued, returned, to be returned)
- Contents Service Report
- Abstract Service Report
- List of Journals
- List of Articles
- Report of Enrolled Users
- Summary Report of Enrolled Users
- List of Blocked Users
- List of Defaulters
- List of New Arrival
Book(s)/NBM(s)
- Fine Collection Receipt
- Barcode printing both for
Book(s)/NBM(s) and users
- Book Card, Pocket and Book Labels
Printing
- Inventory Report/ Stock
verification list
- Catalogue Card Printing
- Using history of a certain Book(s)/NBM(s)
- Book transaction history of a
user for a certain period
- Overdue, collect, and recall
notices/ Letters
- Checkouts to a borrower
- Maintains a record of all the
circulation related transactions, which may either be viewed on screen or printed.
4.8
Digital Library
To store digital resources and provide
Searching and Downloading facilities for eBooks, e-Journals, Reports, Thesis, Exam
questions & solutions, Class lectures, meeting proceedings, Internship
reports, souvenir, videos, audios, photograph etc. This module has the
following facilities:
Ø
Define Category
Ø
Resource Upload
Ø
Digital Resource
Search
Ø
OPAC (Online Public
Access Catalogue)
·
Keyword
Search
·
Advanced
Search
·
Browsing
Ø
Reservation
Ø
New Arrival
Ø
Online Requisition
Ø
E-Tendering
Ø
Transaction History
Operating PLATFORM
Mirror supports a three-tier
open system architecture, from host multi-user system and a Client-Server implementation,
to a total web-based solution. Accordingly, there is a wide range of operating
platforms to choose from.
Server Options:
Ø
Windows
NT/ XP/Vista/ Windows 7/2000/2000 Server/2003
Client Options:
Ø
Standard
Windows (XP/Vista/ Windows 7/2000)
RDBMS Options:
Ø
SQL Server as a
back-end RDBMS with ODBC compatibility.
Application ARCHITECTURE
The
Software architecture for the web along with the desktop application is as
shown in figure 1 and figure 2.
Coding
Conventions
Industry standard coding conventions will be
followed which depends on the comprehension of the software system. The coding
convention will be elaborated from the code maintenance point of view. Good
coding techniques will be followed. The coding conventions are divided into
three distinct sections:
Ø
Names –
The naming scheme is one of the most influential aids to understanding the
logical flow of an application. A name should tell “what” rather than “how” and
should be long enough to be meaningful.
—
Class
Name – Name starts with capital letter and for every new word, the first character
is represented using capital letter.
—
Method
Name – Name starts with small letter and for every new word, the first character
is represented using capital letter.
Ø
Variables - The variables are named according to the followings:
—
Appending
computation qualifiers (Avg, Sum, Min, Max etc) to the end of a variable name
where appropriate
—
Boolean
variables is named using Is which implies Yes/No or True/False values such as checkIsFound
Ø
Comments – Comments will be followed for all the internal logic
and flow. During any updates of codes, date and time stamp will be preserved
for the version control purpose.
Technology
Ø
For
Desktop Application Modules:
—
Front-end
Tool: Visual Basic
—
Report
Tool: ActiveX Report
—
Backend:
SQL Server
Ø
For
Web Application Modules:
—
Front-end
Tool: PHP and JavaScript
—
Report
Tool: HTML and JavaScript
—
Backend:
SQL Server
Installation
and Deployment
Necessary transformation will be made from
existing data model to the solution platform. The necessary prerequisite
condition will be met and Software will be installed in the designated servers
and workstations and will be tested with the data.
Quality
Assurance Plan
The purpose of this Software Quality
Assurance Plan (SQAP) is to define the techniques, procedures, and
methodologies that will be used to assure timely delivery of the software that meets
specified requirements within project resources.
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