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Library Automation-A Feasibility Study

AA Vaishnav and NG Bapat*

Department of Library & Information ScienceDr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad

*Department of Commerce

ABSTRACT

This study deals with library automation programme of BAMUL,Aurangabad. It identifies the problems in the existing system andgives reasons for automation. The study points out the requirement oflibrary automation and discusses the technical, social and economicaspects of library automation in detail.

1. INTRODUCTION

Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar MarathwadaUniversity Library (BAMUL), established in1958 at Aurangabad (Maharaslitra), has inits collection 2,89,895 books and non-bookmaterial, and receives 899 periodical titles.On an average, the library is open on 245days in a year, has 2,979 registered users,and circulation of 56,588 documents. Thelibrary shares i ts resources with otheruniversity libraries; provides teacherspersonal library (TPL) facility, reference andreprographic services; brings out monthlydocumentation list, list of new additionsand occasionally arranges exhibitions.

These services are provided by 68 fulltime staff members of which 27 areprofessionals. However, 22 posts from non-professional category are vacant.Considering the present work load, BAMULneeds 110.4 persons as per the UGCformula (2). During 1993-94, annual budget

for BAMU.L was Rs 65,68,100, of which53.28% amount was spent on purchase ofbooks and periodicals.

0

BAMUL is trying to provide the acquiredinformation within manageable time to itsusers. However, increase in the intake ofstudents has created greater demand forlibrary services and performance of eachoperation manually, makes it difficult toprovide the .acquired information to userswithout loosing their time and tempo.Moreover, due to paucity of clerical staff,most of the semi-professional andprofessional staff has to perform the routineclerical operations which increases the unitcost of each operation. Often, long leave ofprofessional staff creates backlog in thework, and hence, rest of the professionalsare engaged in clearing the backlog. In thissituation, i t is not possible to maintainschedule of the services or to introducenew services, which in turn is leading todissatisfaction among the users.

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One of the solution to solve these of statistics by subject, category of users,problems, is library automation. Library class of students, language of books, typeautomation is the mechanisation of library of material, etc.house-keeping operations, predominantlyby computerisation (1 .

Due to characteristics like speed,promptness, huge storage capacity,accuracy, versatility, diligence, costeffectiveness, ease i n functioning,elimination of duplication of work, greaterposs ibil ity of manipulat ion, etc., thecomputer can be used as a device to helpthe librarian in doing things rapidly, moreeconomically and efficiently.

2. OBJECTIVES

The present study was undertaken with aview to :

Survey the available infrastructure inBAMUL.

Forecast the social aspect of libraryautomation.

Identify the tangible and intangiblebenefits of the system.

2.1. Areas considered for Automation :

The computerisation of BAMUL wouldcover the following operations :

(a)Acquisition: It includes bookselection, purchase of books includingordering and accounting, receipt of books,followup for the unsupplied books,communication of discrepancies, etc.

(b) Technical : It includes accessioning,preparation of author, title, classified andalphabetical subject catalogue, preparationof spine labels, sending books for binding,stock verification-checking missing books,recording of withdrawn books, etc.

(c) Circulation : It includes charging anddischarging of books to users, inter-library

loan, departmental loan, renewals, finecalculation, sending reminders, compilation

(d) Information services : It includescurrent awareness service-list of newadditions, current contents from journals,SDI, location service-local documentationlist, retrospective search, etc.

3. R E Q U I R E M E N T S

In all, about 30 data files need to becreated for various operations coveredunder study to get the required outputs andperform desired functions.

3.1. Hardware Requirements

Computerised BAMUL would requiremulti-user system with 80386microprocessor, 8 MB core memory(RAM), one 1.2 MB floppy drive, one tapedrive, one CD drive, six terminals, one 300MB hard disk, line and dot matrix printers.

3.2. Software requirements

The software required for the system

would be :

Operating system: UNlX version 3.2

W Editors: vi (visual instructors)

Compilers: BASIC and C.

4. FEASl B l L l TY S T U D Y

Considering the requirements, a fullscale feasibility study was undertaken for

testing the possibility of computerisation ofBAMUL. The feasibility study was carriedout under the following three areas :

(a) Technical Feasibility,

(b) Social Feasibility,

(c) Economic Feasibility.

4.1. Technical Feasibility

The Department of Commerce,Marathwada University, Aurangabad has a

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computer centre. The hardware available inthe department is Zeus-386, a multi-usersystem with 8 MB RAM. The system hasone floppy drive of 360 Kl1.2 MB, two harddisks of 156 MB each and one hard disk of300 MB. At a time 32 dumb terminals ofVT100 type can be attached to the system.One tape drive is attached to the system.

Two types of heavy duty printers-oneline printer with 600 lines per minute andone dot-matrix printer with 200 charactersper second speed are attached to thesystem.

The system has standard software like vi(visual instructors) and ed (editors),

compilers of BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOLand C language, and UNlX operatingsystem v 3.2.

It was possible for the CommerceDepartment to provide terminals in thelibrary, attached to the CPU of commercedepartment.

For software, it was thought to developan in-house package and BAMUL had aperson with basic education in library andinformation science coupled withspecialisation in computer programmilngand also familiar with library operations sothat there can be a complete understandingof the requirements.

This shows, that technically it i s feasibleto get the required hardware, software anda person having complete understanding ofthe requirements to develop the softwarepackage .4.2 Social Feasibility

Generally computerisation brings fear ofunemployment amongst the existing staff.The automation of BAMUL will not createunemployment problems but will createnew job positions, like system manager,

system analyst, programmers andprogramme maintenance staff, data entry

operators, etc. It will also relieve theexisting, professional staff from their routineclerical activities, so as to enable them toperform intellectual professional dutieswhich will need reorganisation of staff. Thereorganisation of professional staff will leadto job improvement as well as jobsatisfaction.

As computerisation will generate thepossibility of additional informationservices, such as current awareness service,selective dissemination of information,bibliographic services, retrospectiveinformation services etc., the existing oneprofessional will not be sufficient to providethese services. In future, the system wouldneed system analyst, programmers and dataentry operators.

Though there will not be any change inthe qualifications of the existing staff,except for additional training but in futureappointments, the qualifications for thedifferent professional posts have to bechanged and specialisation in computerprogramming will be a necessaryqualification alopg with basic professionalpostgraduate degree. I t will lead to higherpay scales especially for the posts of systemanalyst, programmers, etc. than that of theassistant librarian and senior library assistantrespectively.

The existing organisational structure willremain unchanged, except for the additionof one more subsystem, i.e., computersystem, for which the librarian will beaccountable.

~ i ~ h e ray scales and an aptitude toperform technical and intellectual jobs willdefinitely lead to job improvement.

Social cost of the proposed system willconsists of the cost of education andtraining, consultation and communication.

For computerisation, each of the existingstaff was consulted for their requirements

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and problems they have in the existingsystem. At the time of implementation, eachemployee wi l l be consul ted andaccordingly, in-house education andtraining programmes will be arranged forthe existing staff member of the library for

8-1 0 days duration. However, staff memberswho are about to retire within 1-2 years,may be reluctant to undergo training in useof computer due to ignorance, fear andhostility, such persons can be utilised formanual professional activities, as analternative to avoid redundancy payment.

4.3. Economic Feasibility

The economic feasibility study wascarried out under following areas :

Cost of operations of existing systems

Cost of operations of the proposedsystem

Cost of development of the proposedsystems

Benefits of the proposed system.

Cost o f operations o f the existing system :Financial records, like annual budget,payrolls, etc. were scrutinised and thelibrarian and each section incharge inBAMUL was interviewed to determine themanpower cost, material cost, operatingcost, equipment cost, overhead cost, etc.for calculation of unit cost of eachoperations in BAMUL.

The total operational expenditure of thelibrary on manpower, material overhead,etc. in 1991-92 was Rs 34,86,963 Table 1.

Cost o f operation o f the proposedsystem: The computerised BAMUL systemrequires manpower, materials, equipment,overhead cost, etc. Also, i t requires datapreparation and conversion cost,

maintenance cost, site preparation cost, etc.

Of the different cost requirements forthe proposed system, Department of

Commerce, BAMUL has invested capitalexpenditure while BAMUL has to bearsome capital and incremental cost as per itsrequirements.

Table 2 shows items of expenditure and

estimated cost of those items which givethe investment, implementation a;ldoverhead cost of the proposed system.

As BAMUL can share the hardwarefacilities with Commerce Department, it hasto bear the cost of monitors and key boardsfor terminals. The library requires 10terminals i n diff ere nt areas likeacquisition-2, maintenance-1, circulation-2,

reference sect ion for data entryoperations-3, for users-2. UGC has alreadygiven a grant for purchase of one PC/ATwhich can be used as terminal. The tapedrive available i n Department of Commercecan be shared by the library. The libraryalready has one dot Matrix printer, whichcan be attached to the computer inCommerce Department.

The computer based system will requiredata entry operators. Till they areappointed, the operat ions can beper'formed by the existing junior libraryassistants and typists after giving requiredtraining for data conversion.

For maintenance of hardware andsoftware, the Commerce Department has

signed a maintenance contract forRs 70,000 of which 10% maintenanceexpenditure can be shared by the librarywhich comes to Rs 7,000 per year.

The computer running cost can becalculated from camputer time used, powerutilised, stationary utilised, etc. I t isestimated to Rs T 7 per computer hour.

For site Preparation, the library need nothave to spend any thing additional on airconditioning, power, insurance, etc.

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By using existing staff after training,sharing with commerce department andusing available hardware there can bereduction of Rs 2,00,000 in capital cost tobe invested by the library. With theproposed system, BAMUL has to bearcapital cost of Rs 11,00,000 which i s onetime investment and Rs 31,35,000/- asincremental cost per year.

Cost of development of the proposedsystem: Co ns ider ing the stages ofdevelopment of a system, attempts weremade to calculate development cost of theproposed system.

The system development cost i s onceonly cost. It required 3360 man-hours i.e.480 working days (1 year 4 months) forsystem development. Hence the systemdevelopment cost required was Rs 1,37,000as salary and Rs 5,000 for stationary. Thetotal system development cost wasRs 1,42,000.

Benefits o f the Proposed system: Librarybeing a non-profit organisation, i t i s difficultto measure, tangible benefits of theproposed system. However, considering thecost of operations of the existing system in1991-92 is Rs 34,86,963 as shown inTable 1. The expenditure incurred by thelibrary in 1993-94 on items other thanbooks and periodicals was Rs 30,68,100.The cost of operations of the proposed

system consists of capital cost ofRs 11,00,000 and incremental cost ofRs 31,35,000. i t can be said that since thecapital cost of Rs 1 1,Q0,000 will be onetime investment, the operations cost ofproposed system will. be less than that ofexisting system which shows net costreduction by Rs 3,51,963. This includes costof manpower, material, equipment andoverheads.

At the same time, financial resources canbe generated by the library for providing

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Table 1. Cost of operations of the existingsystem for the year 1991-92.

S.No. Item Cost

1. Ma npow er (Salary) Rs. 26,89,200

2. Materin.15 Rs. 3,27,5003. Equipment cost Rs. 4,62,313

4. Overhead cost Rs . 7,950

Total Rs. 34.86.963

selective dissemination of information (SDI)and bibliographic services, so as to makethe system cost beneficial.

Apart from these, the following can bethe intangible benefits of the proposedsystem :

I aster response time and accuracy inproviding information can improve thequality of library services

?

Availability of statistical information fromthe system which can lead to effectivedecision making and elimination of

wastage

@ Saving of future expenditure in collectiondevelopment because of possibility ofsharing resources with other libraries bylinking through INFLIBNm

Provision of new information services likecurrent awareness service, selectivedissemination of information,

retrospective search, etc.

The library has to spend Rs 11,00,000 ascapital cost, which is one time investment.It is cost effective to the extent of servicesprovided by the proposed system.

The c'ustomers will accept the system, asit will provide them required information

.

without loosing their time and tempo. Theemployees can happily accept it as theirfriend to supplement their job and improvetheir status.

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Table 2. Estimated capital a nd Incremental cost o f operat ions of the proposed system

S. N o Items Capital cost invested by Capital cost to be Incremental cost to b eDept. o f Commerce invested by BAMUL invested by BAMUL

(A) INVESTMENT COST

1. Hardware Rs. 10,00,000 Rs. 7,00,000 - -2. Software (Cost o f hardware Rs. 50,000 .

includes the cost o fsoftware also)

(B) IMPLEMENTATION COST3. Room Preparation - -

Cost4. Consumables - -

5. Data Conversion Cost - -

Rs. 25,000

Rs. 25,000

Rs. 3,00,000

Rs. 25,000(per year)

(C) OVERHEAD COST6. Maintenance o f site - - - - Rs. 10,0007. Maintenance (H/W & - -

S / w )

- - Rs. 1,00,000

8. Ma n-pow er (Salary) - - -- Rs. 30,00,000(per year)

Total Rs. 10,00,000 Rs. 11,00,000 Rs. 3 1,35.000

5. CONCLUSION

Library automation is the need of theday. However, one has to think of theinvestment, i ts technical and social aspects.

Technically it is feasible to get therequired hardware, software and personhaving complete understanding of therequirements to develop software package.

Au toma t ion w i l l c rea te n ew jobopportunities h t h higher scales and relievethe existing professional staff from theirroutine clerical activities to enable them toperform intellectual professional duties. Thereorganisation o f professional staff will leadto job satisfaction. The social cost ofproposed system will be only the trainingcost of library personnel for 8-10 days. It

shows that library automation in BAMUL isfeasible socially.

The operational cost of the proposedsystem i s less than that of existing systemwhich includes manpower, mater ia lequ ipment and overhead cost. At the sametime, the system will be able to generatefinancial resources to make the system costbeneficial along with many intangiblebenefits, hence eco nom icallt libraryautomaton is feasible.

4. REFERENCES

1. Ravichandra Rao, I. K. Library automation.Wiley Eastern, Ne w Delhi.1990.

2. University Grants Commission LibraryCommittee. University and collegelibraries : Report. (Chairman D r S.R.Ranganathan). UGC, N ew Delhi. 1965.

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