Use Case Description for Checking Out Books in University Library System

University Library system
Name
Institution
Professor
Course
Date

Task 1: Use case description for checking out books
Library information system involves interaction of many entities that should
communicate effectively to satisfy systems’ functional requirements. Use cases in library
information system would be used to describe functional requirements to be captured during
system design (Garcia, Carretero, Perez, Carballeira & Filgueira, 2005). Before a use case
description can be deduced, it is important to establish all required entities. According to
Kantorowitz & Lyakas (2005), entities or actors are used to describe working of the entire
system once implemented. The University library case study would be analyzed to be able to
understand all proposed system requirements. Some of the use cases would be able to capture
one entity which can be extended into more than one scenario. In a use case, extension occurs if
one entity performs more than one functions but in different manner. In this case, check out use
case can be deduced from library loans module. From library loans, there are several actors
which should interact in order to make book reserve and check out possible. The entire process
would involve entities such as patrons, library information system, students and administrator. In
order to analyze the entire check out process, use case index would be very important.

Table 1: Use case index description
Case Id Use Case Name Actor
1
Reservation Patron
Faculty
Graduate
Undergraduate
3 Approve Administrator
4
Registration Student Undergraduate
Graduate
Interaction between these entities and the system make it possible to design responsive
and functional library information system. In this case, patron is the main actor which takes
center of the discussion. Check out process is mainly facilitated by patron who keeps all required
books on reserve then takes them to administrator for check out. With three different tiers of
patrons, check out remains to be one of the major process that builds up an entire library system.
The use case loan can be extended in to three possible scenarios which are used to illustrate the
entire functionality of the system. It is important to note that three tier patrons have different
privileges depending on the group of students they serve. In this case, there will be only one
patron case which extends all other three functionalities. All patron details including; Names,
residential address, office address and Telephone number would be captured in information
system database. Patrons’ details would be captured depending on the category of the patron.
Different types of information would be captured in order to facilitate smooth tracking of loaning
out books. Patrons are important entities in the system because all borrowing by students are
done through them. Once they collect requests from students, they present all requests to
administrator with relevant books for reserve and check out. In the design of the system
regarding patrons’ use of the system, some assumptions would be; each student category would