Lirbrary mobile system

Abstract

The library of City University, Run Run Shaw Library, provides a variety of services to cope with the needs of students and faculties. The library's services are comprised in numerous sections, in which different services and books of specific categories are deployed accordingly for the disposal of library members. Several methods have been employed to deliver efficient and effective services, among which the featuring one is an informative website, which is the main online access between the library and students. However, with the prevalence of smart phones and its portability and accessibility, the lack of a dedicated, mobile-platform based application for the library becomes pressing. Therefore, it is considered favorable to develop a more service-oriented library system based on a smart phone platform to enhance the utilization of library. By providing this Android application, users shall be given a smartphone access to most of the frequently used services from the library, with its data in a more informative and direct layout. The objectives of the application are to provide the library with a dedicated mobile platform application for access to library services; to provide the library users with an application with direct and concise user interface design; to enhance the customization of library services to individuals; to support offline functions for information look-up. The Android application supports four major functionalities from book searching and book information display, facility booking, facility location searching to library user information checking. With the application in place, library users would have Android platform access to the most frequently used services provided by the library. In accordance with the objectives discussed above, the application will fulfill all of the objectives, therefore, considerably boost the service usage efficiency.