Draft A Research Report Highlighting "The Design And Functionality Of The Library Database"

Part C: Research questions.

As a database expert, you are invited to write a report of maximal one page on the design and functionality of the Library database. Your report must address each of the following questions:

MUST REFERENCE SCHOLAR ARTICLES USING HARVARD REFERENCING SYSTEM

1. The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system is used by libraries around the world to organise books for storage according to subject classes. Here is the Wikipedia entry on the list of DDC classes. The DDC is structured around ten main subject classes covering the entire world of knowledge; each main class is further structured into ten hierarchical divisions, each having ten divisions of increasing specificity. For example 000-099 is for the subject class of “Computer science, information and general works”, and 005 is specifically for “Computer programming, programs and data”. A book on SQL programming may have a Dewey call number like 005.789, where 005 is for the main subject class and 789 is for a specific subclass. Discuss if the DDC implies any data integrity constraint on the Dewey call number and the subject class of books, and if the given Library database schema enforces such constraint. Further explain if any such constraint can be enforced using the data integrity mechanism in the relational data model.
2. With the current Library database ER model, Person (as a library user) and Author are separate entity types and there are not any relationships between them. Discuss any weakness of this design choice, and give your recommendations to improve the ER model and the corresponding relational database schema.
3. Using artificial primary keys for entity types (and tables) is commonly used for ER modelling (and relational database design). Read this blog post “Natural vs. Artificial Primary Keys” on this topic. Artificial primary keys are often necessary for modelling complex real world applications, but artificial primary keys can also lead to data fragmentation – data about one data object are kept in multiple tables, which means complex join queries on many tables. In the given Library database ER diagram, “transactionID” is the artificial primary key for the “borrow” entity type and the “borrow” table. Discuss the real-world scenario of “users borrow books” modelled in the current Library database. Further discuss how the real-world scenario of “users borrow books” would be different if without the artificial primary key “transactionID