Library Management System

Overview

This Library Management System (LMS) is designed to facilitate the management of a library's inventory and its borrowing process. It allows librarians to add, write off, and manage books, as well as register and manage users.

Features

• Book Management: Add new books, write off old or damaged books, and check book availability.
• User Management: Register new users, deactivate users, and manage user borrowing privileges.
• Borrowing System: Allow users to borrow and return books, enforcing rules such as availability and user status.

Feature that can be built

When designing a Library Management System, interviewers might be interested in assessing your ability to handle increasingly complex requirements and your thought process in designing scalable and maintainable software. Here's a list of features you might be asked to build, starting from basic to more advanced, to demonstrate these skills:

Basic Features [DONE]

• Catalog Management: Ability to add, remove, and update books in the catalog.
• Membership Management: Registering users, updating user details, and managing memberships.
• Book Borrowing and Returns: Handling the checkout and return processes, including updating book availability.

Intermediate Features

• Search Functionality: Implementing search by book title, author, or ISBN. This can include simple string matching or more complex search algorithms.
• Due Dates and Overdue Notices: Tracking due dates for borrowed books and automatically generating overdue notices for late returns.
• Reservation System: Allowing users to reserve books that are currently checked out and notifying them when the book becomes available.

Advanced Features

• Fine Calculation and Payment: Calculating fines for late returns and managing payments. This may involve integrating with a payment system.
• Reports and Analytics: Generating reports on book usage, popular books, user activity, and overdue books. This could require knowledge of data analytics and reporting tools.
• Recommendation System: Developing a system to recommend books based on user history or book similarities. This could involve machine learning algorithms.

Highly Advanced Features

• Multi-branch Support: Extending the system to support multiple library branches, including inter-branch book transfers and unified user access across branches.

• Digital Media Management: Expanding the catalog to include digital media such as e-books and audio books, along with the necessary DRM (Digital Rights Management) considerations.

• API Integration for External Services: Integrating with external APIs for book information (e.g., Google Books API), user authentication services, or other libraries for inter-library loan services.

• Accessibility Features: Ensuring the system is accessible to users with disabilities, which may involve following web accessibility guidelines (WCAG) and implementing assistive technologies.

• Scalability and Performance Optimization: Designing the system to handle a large number of users and books efficiently, which might involve database optimization, caching strategies, and cloud deployment considerations.

• When tackling these features in an interview, start by clarifying requirements, identifying key entities and their relationships, and discussing your approach before diving into code. It's also beneficial to mention potential challenges and how you would address them, as this demonstrates foresight and problem-solving skills.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• .NET 6.0 SDK or later
• An IDE such as Visual Studio, VS Code, or JetBrains Rider

Installation

1. Clone the repository to your local machine:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/library-management-system.git

2. Navigate to the project directory:

cd library-management-system

3. Restore the project dependencies:

dotnet restore

4. Build the project:

dotnet build

Running the Application

To run the application, use the following command from the root of the project directory:

dotnet run

Running the Tests

To run the unit tests and verify the system, use the following command:

dotnet test

Usage

After starting the application, you can use the provided interface to interact with the system. Operations include adding books, registering users, borrowing and returning books, and more.

Contributing

Contributions to improve the Library Management System are welcome. Please follow these steps to contribute:

• Fork the repository.
• Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature).
• Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some AmazingFeature').
• Push to the branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature).
• Open a pull request.

License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

Contact Nawed Imroze - [email protected]

Project Link: https://github.com/nawedx/library-management-system