The library acts as a storehouse of knowledge and, therefore, forms a quintessential part of schools, colleges, and universities. With technological advancements making inroads in the global educational sector, the traditional library is also undergoing significant technological transformations. More and more schools and educational institutions are nowadays automating their libraries by integrating school book management software to convert traditional school libraries into high-tech collaborative learning centers.
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A school book automation software leverages the latest technologies to help librarians manage school libraries efficiently. It is an internet-enabled software designed to help you manage your school books in an organized manner. The school books software also helps you keep tabs on all library-related activities, such as availability of books, inventory, issue/reissue and return of books, etc. What’s more, it helps users find books instantaneously, thus, saving a lot of time.
Advantages of Using School Book Software
School books management software completely automates the process of managing a school library to add to the convenience of librarians, teachers, and students. Additionally, a library automation system offers a lot of advantages to its users:
Also, Read: The Ultimate Guide to Adapt Online School Management Software
- The software can be deployed in small as well as large-sized school libraries.
- A school book management system can be tailored according to the requirements of the users.
- It is easy to install and calls for minimum maintenance.
- It minimizes manual tasks and streamlines the process of managing different scholarly materials, such as journals, books, theses, encyclopedias, newspapers, dissertations, research papers, videos, and even eBooks through a single click.
- School book software helps librarians classify books, journals, etc., subject-wise.
- Cloud-based school book software provides students and teachers with round-the-clock access to school book collection anytime, anywhere.
- With mobile-compatible school book management software, users can easily search books, library catalogs, and other library resources whenever required.
- School book software also calculates fines for late returns automatically.
Importance of Library Software in School
Besides enhancing the efficiency of librarians, high-performing school book software serves a spectrum of purposes:
1. Boosts Efficiency
The School book management system helps librarians manage school libraries quickly, efficiently, and securely. The software also raises the efficiency of students and teachers as they can easily check the availability of books with the help of the software.
2. Minimizes Library Management Expenses
With school book software, you need only one person to manage the library. Thus, you can significantly reduce the expenses of library management. Moreover, cloud-based library automation software helps school libraries do away with conventional paper-based library management processes, thus minimizing operational expenses.
3. Saves Time
School management software is a time-saving tool for librarians, as well as students and teachers. With a library automation system, librarians can quickly track books that have been borrowed by teachers and students. Similarly, with the help of the software, students and teachers can quickly find out if a specific book is available in the library.
These are some of the advantages of using school book management software. Now that you are aware of the significance and benefits of library automation software let’s delve deeper into some of the important features of the software.
Features of School Book Software
1. Automated Cataloguing
A school book management system allows librarians to generate a catalog of bibliographic records, such as a comprehensive list of different subjects, name of author/authors, publisher’s name, price of the book, year of publication, short descriptions, etc. so that students and teachers can make use of the catalog to search different library resources with ease.
2. Cloud-Hosting
Cloud-based library management systems are efficient as well as flexible, and therefore, they offer countless benefits to librarians, students, and teachers. Cloud-based library automation software helps users access the school book anytime from any internet-enabled handheld device. Additionally, the maintenance of cloud-hosted library management tools is taken care of by the service provider. Thus, you can do away with the need to hire a techie to maintain or update the software.
3. Inventory Management
School book software helps librarians track the library inventory in real-time to maintain records of issued books. It also allows librarians to keep a tab on available library resources, the number of books issued, and overdue library books. Additionally, The software allows librarians to identify damaged and worn-out books so that they can replace the old books with clean and latest editions of those books.
4. Barcoding Scanning Capabilities
The most efficient school book software offers barcoding scanning features to help librarians manage library inventory efficiently. The barcoding feature allows library staff to add barcodes to different library resources. The barcodes assigned to each book are scanned whenever a book is issued to students or whenever a student returns a book to the library. This useful feature facilitates faster library transactions and also improves circulation capabilities.
5. Report Generation
A school book software generates customized reports about transactions of all books, such as the total number of books borrowed and returned by students and teachers or the total number of library members in the school. The report-generation capabilities of library management software help librarians keep tabs on KPIs to make informed decisions.
6. Database Management
Software plays a pivotal role in helping library staff manage library data efficiently. From membership management to asset management, library management software is capable of managing all necessary information about resources that are available for lending or reading.
7. Easy Accessibility
The software can be accessed from the classroom, home, staff room, and even when you are on the go. You just need a stable internet connection to access the software anytime, anywhere.
8. Membership Tracker
Staff track necessary information about students who have taken library membership. Other than tracking information about library members, this feature helps librarians track lending data, renewal data, and much more.
9. Mobile-friendly
Mobile application to enable students and teachers to find and borrow books on the go.
10. Technical Assistance
Offers 24/7 technical assistance throughout the year to help users whenever they need assistance.
11. Training
Offer training to its users via webinars, documentation, in-person, and live online sessions.
12. Data Backup Feature
This is the most useful feature offered by efficient library management software. Keeping a backup of your data is important for avoiding data loss in the event of any disaster. Since a cloud-based library management system stores all library data in the cloud, it eliminates the risk of data loss. What’s more, you can access your data even during disasters. Unlike open-source library management software, cloud-based systems are not vulnerable to the risk of data loss as it does not store your valuable data on your PC’s hard drive. That’s why educational institutions prefer cloud-based library software over open-source software.
These are some of the must-have features you should focus on when looking for library automation software. Reviving the school library management system automates the process of managing school libraries; not all library automation tools have been designed to cater to your needs. Therefore, before taking the plunge, you should prioritize your library’s requirements to pick the right library software.
How to Choose the Best School Book Management System?
When choosing a school library management software for your school, consider the factors cited below:
- Do a bit of online research to shortlist the best library management software available in the market.
- Visit the websites of the school library software shortlisted by you and go through the reviews and rankings of the software to understand if it will suit your needs.
- Visit software review sites to learn more about the advantages and shortcomings of the software shortlisted by you.
- Pick a school book automation system that is easy to set up and use. It should have a user-friendly interface.
- Make sure the library management tool you are planning to buy allows you to upload ebooks.
- Find out if the software offers strong data backup and recovery features.
- Choose the right software vendor that has a good reputation in the industry.
- Before making the final purchase decision, find out if the vendor offers a comprehensive trial version of the school book automation software.
- Ask the vendor how they manage software upgrades and updates. At the same time, make sure there are no hidden costs or restrictions.
- First-time users often find it difficult to use school software; therefore, make sure the software vendor provides training sessions. At the same time, find out how many members can participate in the training.
- It is advisable to choose a library automation software that offers support over the telephone, web chat, as well as social networks.
Conclusion
Picking the best library management software for schools can be quite a daunting task for people who are not tech-savvy. However, a little bit of awareness can go a long way towards helping you choose the best-fit library software. We hope the guidelines highlighted in this post will help you pick a fully integrated and scalable school book management system.
A digital marketing and content curator at SoftwareSuggest, a software recommendation platform. I am passionate about Digital Marketing, and all things digital. Also interested in technology and innovation. In my spare time, enjoy playing cricket, and Badminton.
