Use Case Diagram for the Library Management System

Let’s build the use case diagram for the library management system and understand the relationships between its main actors, system functions, and user interactions. First, we will define the different elements of our library, followed by the complete use case diagram of the system.

System

Our system is the Library Management system. It manages the library’s catalog, member accounts, book transactions, and notifications.

Actors

Next, we will define the main actors of our library management system.

Primary actors

• Member: A library member who can search, reserve, borrow, renew, or return books, pay fines, and and request membership cancellation.

• Librarian: The administrator responsible for managing books and book items, issuing and returning books, handling reservations, managing member accounts, and overseeing fines.

Secondary actors

• System: It can send alerts related to reservations and late returns of books.

Use cases

In this section, we will define the library’s use cases. We have listed the use cases according to their respective interactions with a particular actor.

Note: Some use cases will occur multiple times because they are shared among different actors in the system.

Member

• Login/Logout: To securely access or exit their member account and access library services.

• Register/Update account: To create a new membership account or update personal and contact information.

• Cancel membership: To voluntarily request termination of their library membership.

• View account: To review their own account details, borrowing history, current checkouts, reservations, and fines.

• Search catalog: Search the library catalog for books or resources by title, author, subject, or publication date.

• Reserve book: To place a hold on a book that is currently checked out, ensuring it can be borrowed when it becomes available.

• Checkout book: To complete the process of borrowing a book, either directly or following a successful reservation.

• Renew book: To request an extension for the borrowing period of a currently issued book.

• Return book: To return a borrowed book to the library, update the system, and potentially make it available for other members.

• Remove reservation: To cancel a previously placed hold on a book.

• Pay fine: To settle any outstanding fines incurred due to overdue book returns or other violations, allowing the member to maintain good standing.

Librarian

• Login/Logout: To securely access or exit the librarian account and manage system resources.

• Register/Update account: This allows you to register a new library member by collecting and saving their details in the system, or modify a member’s personal details or membership status.

• Cancel membership: To terminate the library membership of a member and deactivate their account.

• View account: To access and review the account details and history of a library member.

• Issue library card: During registration, create and assign a unique library card to a new member, enabling them to borrow books and access other library services.

• Add book: To add a new book entry to the library’s catalog, including essential metadata such as author and ISBN etc.

• Edit book: To update the information of an existing book in the library catalog.

• Remove book: To delete a book record from the library catalog, typically if it is no longer part of the library’s collection.

• Add book item: This is to add a physical copy of a book to the library’s inventory (e.g., when purchasing additional copies).

• Edit book item: This allows you to update the details (such as rack location) of a specific physical copy of a book.

• Remove book item: To delete a specific copy of a book from the inventory.

• Issue book: To lend a book item to a library member, recording the issuance in the system.

• Renew book: To extend the borrowing period for a book that has already been issued to a member, as per library policy.

• Update catalog: To comprehensively manage the library catalog by adding, editing, or removing books or book items.

• Remove reservation: To cancel a member’s reservation for a book, making the book available to others.

Library management system

• Calculate fine: This function automatically determines the fine amount for overdue books based on the return date and the library’s fine policy.

• Send overdue notification: To send alerts to members when the return due date for a borrowed book has passed, prompting action.

• Send reservation available notification: To inform members when a previously reserved book becomes available for borrowing or checkout.

• Send reservation canceled notification: To notify members when their reservation for a book has been canceled.

Relationships

This section describes the relationships between and among actors and their use cases.

Generalization

Search catalog is a generalized use case. Members can search by different attributes. Specialized use cases include:

• Search by title

• Search by author

• Search by subject

• Search by publication date

This means that “Search catalog” generalizes the more specific search methods.

Associations

The table below shows the association relationship between actors and their use cases.