In-house Library Software Development at IIT Kharagpur: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

This paper describes the in-house software development initiative undertaken at the Central Library of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur for library automation and to replace the existing commercial package. A glimpse of the application of software development strategies for a library software development work is presented with the help of ER diagram, DFD, and schematic diagram, for the Current Journal module. Any software development effort pursues its challenges as the focal point to improve, enhance and substantiate the development effort. Some of the hidden and perceived challenges are listed out. As the software development phases up to testing only consume 40% of the effort, the library is gathering resources and support to execute 60% of the effort in maintaining the package as well as to generalize the package for its marketability.