Managing a physical library (books, journals etc)

Question

_{Wednesday, August 8, 2012 5:12 AM}

Is it possible to use SharePoint 2010 to work like a Library Management System for managing a physical (traditional) library collection?  I need to be able to catalogue multiple copies of physical books, journal issues etc and manage the loans.  I also need to be able check statistics of who has borrowed items, how many items were purchased or loaned in a certain period of time.  Track when journal issues haven't arrived etc.

Has anyone successfully managed to do this without plugging a third party product into Sharepoint?

All replies (4)

_{Wednesday, August 8, 2012 6:07 AM ✅Answered}

Hi Deborah,

Whatever you want to achieve is possible using a combination of OOTB feature and custom programming.

In the earlier version of SharePoint, Microsoft had released a set of templates (named as the Fantastic 40 templates) for common usage scenarios. One of the templates in that collection was a library management template. Refer to this link for more info on these templates - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/sharepoint/bb407286.aspx

However these templates were for WSS 3.0 and are not usable OOTB in SharePoint 2010. Some of these templates have been upgraded by another organization for use with SharePoint 2010. Info can be located here - http://www.techsolutions.net/Blog/tabid/65/EntryId/18/Fab-40-for-Sharepoint-Foundation.aspx

Regards

Nauzad Kapadia.

_{Wednesday, August 8, 2012 6:24 AM ✅Answered}

Hi,

you can surely use SharePoint any of your requirement. Firstly decide your data dictionary and then map with list, With adding few custom code. 

SharePoint is enough capable for configuring any business automation on it.

Thanks and Regards, Shailesh B. Davara

_{Thursday, August 9, 2012 6:22 AM ✅Answered | 1 vote}

you can have a site with two lists:

one for book records, there is one piece of record for one copy of physical book;

the other is for loan record, you can create one piece of record in this list whenever you loaned out a book, information in this record may include the reference to the book record, to whom the book is loaned out, when it is supposed to be returned,etc. 

If you use lookup field to reference the book list in the loan record list, i wonder if it is convenient to find the book with the out of box dropdown list for lookup field. There can be so many records in the book list since it is a library. Of cause you can have a programmer to develope a picker form for the book lists, looks like the out of box people picker, so that you can easily find the book when you create the loan record.

But i think, as a better alternative, you can create a SharePoint designer workflow on the book list, when someone loan a book, you can found the book easily in the book list, with the help of filter on the column header. Then you start the workflow on the book, the workflow will create the loan record, it can also create alert message remind you and the client when the book is supposed to be returned. You may also create tasks in the workflow and assign the them to the relevent personnel.

By the way, you are not forced to put all book records in one list, you can organize them in different lists, even sites for security or performance consideration, you can also make use of folders in list.

_{Sunday, April 7, 2013 3:40 PM}

Hi Deborah,

You can take a look at http://SEBLib.com. Although it is a 3rd party solution, it is built completely on  SharePoint - no external resources are needed.

Regards,

Valter