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Draft Project Proposal Form

Student Name:
Student No:
Email Address:
Program Name:

Software Engineering

Title of project:
Please record which modules your topic is related to:
Advanced Database Systems
Programming Concepts in C++
Web Applications
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Instruction:
This is the draft proposal of your FYP which needs to be submitted to the project administrator by
hardcopy refer to your timeline for submission deadline.
1.

Introduction

Academic libraries are changing due to information technology revolution caused by the
behavior of current library users. However there are many limitations being discovered,
in present digital as well as traditional libraries in terms of collection, service, and
environment, especially for internet generation students who have grown up with
computers and games played electronically, traditional libraries and even the digital ones
seem to be not useful, as most of this generation students would rather go for Google or
alike search engines. Moreover, there is a necessity of implementing forums in libraries
which would bring huge impact in terms of research, academic work and tuition.

The system being proposed would provide traditional functionalities of e-library in an

electronic mobile form. Thoroughly, the system would have basic range of operations of
any e-library such as login, book search, and the ability to read and sort those. Moreover,
the software being developed would be specifically for tablet devices on iOS mobile
platform and besides the normal e-book formats, users would have options to listen to

digital audio books and watch videos. The system would also include online chat and
idea sharing rooms between students. The main difference from the analogs, which would
make the application outstanding, is that it would be designed in a virtual form which is a
simulation of real life environment of library as well as with the use of augmented reality
in scanning books and reading them through it.
2.

Problem Statement

In the past 50 years, library has been improved in terms of producing information
resources for users, as the time passes, there is an importance to provide data to everyone
and make it available at anytime and anywhere. Consequently, digital collection of
library data comes into account to make materials accessible. However, nowadays there
are many issues being discovered concerning book readers, representation of data in
regular as well as digital libraries, accessibility and availability of traditional libraries
along with publications and so forth. McGrath, Rogers and Gilligan (2010) cites the work
of Coradini(2006) and Lynch(2007), physical barriers contain issues like distance and
transport, competition based on other services and attractions, and restricted working
hours, while psychological barriers contain relation to study, noiselessness or weariness,
a stereotype of the librarians being not friendly and shortage of family tradition of using
library services. However, traditional library accessibility and availability issues are
concerning physically disabled people. Its difficult to reach and work on the standard
library for physically disadvantaged people, thus the electronic versions of any materials
must be provided to them. Rickinson (2010) finds out that people with disabilities being
inclined in attaining educational skill or achievement. Those people are also not gratified
about education provided to them.

Problems faced by the traditional libraries in the Net generation can be explained as
people born in the time of the Internet are always connected online: in social networks,
on the phone and similar ones. As specified by Sadeh (2007), based on Online Computer
Library Center survey (OCLC), 87% of students that contributed in the conducted survey
indicate their preference in using search engines rather than traditional and online
libraries recalling convince of those; 87% declared that web search engines are much
more simplified; and 90% find those much faster to use. Speaking of search engines,
Youtube, Facebook, MySpace, blogs provide vast collection of materials that may or may

not be trustworthy and precise. These technologies for search equip students and
researcher with immeasurable knowledge, however, the materials provided is not deep
and systematic. Keller (2009: 2-3) identifies that Google, Yahoo, and the other web
searches and guides have helped to find information based on the request, but those are
restricted by the web sites and documents which are generally available for public.
Furthermore, despite the fact that paper works consist of pertinent knowledge, they
require extensive usage of papers, thus takeover of traditional libraries may lead to
destruction in terms of forests, wastage of water, pollution. According to Schpfel
(2012), libraries are exhausting natural resources like energy and water at an alarming
rate by utilizing chemicals and producing waste.
Additionally, production of huge stock of paper works is unnecessary as there is no
justification of the wastage. As per Wu, Chang, and Li (2011), standard publications
obtainable that fulfill the requirements of students, lecturers in terms of learning are often
frequently used in traditional libraries, yet some learning materials namely journals and
books costing millions of dollars have a small number of readers due to insufficiency of
those. Nowadays people are not much into paper works, mostly preferring search
engines. As claimed by Yonghua, Xinhao and Xingbo (2011), paper publications that are
comprised from apposite information and knowledge, require enormous amount of paper
to be consumed, which is not always conducive to peoples retrieval or use; the wastage
of such amount of paper brings consequences to habitat as well as natural world and in
addition those publications are being printed day by day which leads to water wastage
which again brings environmental contamination.

Besides, physical libraries are bounded by size, thus limiting the information provided.
Also, normal libraries spent resources as space, money and natural resources such as
wood and so on. As comparison between traditional and digital libraries provided by
Loyalala (2013), standard library bounded by storage area whilst digital ones only require
small size of physical storage to encompass large amount of information. Moreover,
standard libraries demand a large number of capitals starting from budget spent for staff,
books, maintenance and so forth, not counting physical space. Traditional libraries are
focused on collection of books and materials available; nevertheless, the digital libraries
are able to accommodate vast collection of paper works as well as to be connected to

other online libraries servers, organizations. Based on the discussion provided by

Yonghua, Xinhao and Xingbo (2011), drawbacks of using paper based records are
progressively pointed out gradually: paper documents bring little amount of knowledge
and those documents are often out of date, paper based publications require storage
spaces and human interaction, not to mention their limitation in terms of availability and
accessibility as well as transportation, transmission, distribution as necessitates cost.

Coming more to digital libraries, that exist these days, those comprise own concerns and
complications. Even due to there are many existing digital libraries, the percentage of
usage of those are not as high as it might be. The problems with existing digital libraries
can be due to their incompleteness in terms of assistance and guidance provided,
browsing the data, interoperability, user interface and many more. In spite of that,
humans still go for digital library options rather than traditional ones, recalling the digital
ones much more quickly and factual. Based on the facts given by Yin, Mohd-Nasir and
Thimbleby (n.d.) primarily people prefer traditional library environment specifying
abilities to discover and share thoughts with others and 27% of those people made put
forward to encompass the real life library environment in digital libraries.

3.

Project Aims and Objectives

The aim of the project is to create a mobile e library system in iOS mobile platform
which provides range of library operations including student login, search and view ebooks, journals, furthermore audio books, videos and final year project materials along
with discussion and idea sharing rooms would be provided for users, in addition the
system would evoke or simulate the physical analogy of traditional library in terms of
environments, guidance, touring by implementing the concept of 3D virtual reality in
design and would use augmented reality to scan the books and read them using
augmented reality.
There would be several objectives in order to accomplish the aims defined:

To develop an application that would provide several functionalities such as

student and lecturer login, search and view e-book.

To create centralized database that would consist of e-books, journals, audio

books, videos and plus final year project materials

To use appropriate metadata for cataloging services in the application

To facilitate easy search for materials providing convenient interoperability

between materials available in database

4.

To establish online discussion rooms

To create most suitable design by simulating traditional library environment

To develop online touring and guidance for e-library

To realize augmented reality that would be used to scan books

To utilize the concept of reading books through augmented reality

Deliverables

The mobile e-library application ARELib will allow users such as students, lecturers
being able to access e-library in a new and advanced way. The application provides
features of the academic library so that the users can search for book anywhere and
anytime.

Allow users to login and logout from the application.

Allow students and lecturers to search for books.

Allow students to scan a book and read it through augmented reality.

Allow end-users to search for a book anywhere and anytime to check its
existence in academic library.

Allow end-users to check the location of a book in academic library.

Allow end-users to use online discussion room / chatting rooms to discuss ideas
and thoughts with others.

Allow end-users to watch videos related to the book he or she is searching. For
instance, if student looks for a mathematics book there he or she can find videos
related to the math in the recommended field.

Allow end-users to rent a book for a specific period of time.

Allow administrator to update book collection in the application database.

Additional features of the application would be as follow:

Allow students and lecturers to view history of searched and read books.

Allow administrator to generate reports via Microsoft Excel to check usage level
of books.

Allow to minimize time searching books in academic library.

Allow to renew a rental of a book.

Allow to maximize trustworthy and precise information provided for end-users.

Allow to access library in a new way anytime and anywhere.