The Digital Archivist - Library Management System

The Digital Archivist is a full-stack library management system for managing books, students, circulation, fines, notices, notifications, and library-wide settings. The project uses a static HTML/CSS/JavaScript frontend served by an Express backend with MongoDB persistence.

Codebase Overview

• public/ contains the frontend pages, styles, and browser scripts.
• public/pages/auth/ contains login, signup, and forgot-password pages.
• public/pages/admin/ contains admin dashboards for books, users, transactions, and settings.
• public/pages/student/ contains student dashboard, catalog browsing, account, and borrowed-books views.
• backend/src/server.js starts the Express API, connects to MongoDB, seeds a default admin account, and serves the frontend.
• backend/src/routes/ defines API routes for auth, books, users, transactions, students, settings, notices, and notifications.
• backend/src/models/ defines Mongoose models for users, books, transactions, settings, notices, and notifications.
• backend/src/middleware/ handles JWT auth, role checks, maintenance mode, and book-cover uploads.

Features

• JWT-based authentication with student, librarian, and admin roles.
• Student registration, login, profile updates, and password changes.
• Admin user management with status updates and password reset support.
• Book catalog CRUD with categories, filters, cover-image uploads, soft delete, and restore.
• Circulation workflow for borrowing, returning, renewing, overdue tracking, and fine payments.
• Student catalog browsing, active loans, history, holds, and dashboard stats.
• Library settings for loan days, fine policy, registration, maintenance mode, and library details.
• Notices and unread notification badges for admins and students.
• Security middleware including Helmet, CORS, request rate limiting, and password hashing.

Tech Stack

• Frontend: HTML, CSS, JavaScript
• Backend: Node.js, Express
• Database: MongoDB with Mongoose
• Authentication: JWT, bcryptjs
• Uploads: Multer
• Utilities: dotenv, dayjs, morgan, compression, express-validator

Getting Started

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/RajHarsh03/Library-Management-System.git
cd Library-Management-System

2. Install Backend Dependencies

cd backend
npm install

3. Configure Environment Variables

Create a .env file inside the backend/ directory:

PORT=5000
NODE_ENV=development
MONGODB_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/digital_archivist
JWT_SECRET=change_this_secret
JWT_EXPIRE=7d
ADMIN_EMAIL=admin@archivist.sys
ADMIN_PASSWORD=admin123
CORS_ORIGIN=*
RATE_LIMIT_WINDOW_MS=900000
RATE_LIMIT_MAX_REQUESTS=500

4. Run the App

npm run dev

The app will be available at:

http://localhost:5000

The health check endpoint is:

http://localhost:5000/api/health

Default Admin Account

On startup, the backend creates a default admin account if no admin exists:

Email: admin@archivist.sys
Password: admin123

You can override these values with ADMIN_EMAIL and ADMIN_PASSWORD in backend/.env.

Useful Scripts

Run these from the backend/ directory:

npm start
npm run dev
npm test
npm run lint

Main API Areas

• POST /api/auth/register - register a user
• POST /api/auth/login - log in and receive a JWT
• GET /api/auth/me - get the current user profile
• GET /api/books - browse/search books
• POST /api/books - create a book as admin or librarian
• GET /api/users - manage users as admin
• POST /api/transactions/borrow - issue a book
• POST /api/transactions/return - return a book
• GET /api/student/dashboard - student dashboard data
• GET /api/settings/public - public library settings
• GET /api/notifications/unread-count - unread notification count
• GET /api/notices - active notices

Frontend Routes

• /login
• /signup
• /forgot-password
• /admin/dashboard
• /admin/books
• /admin/users
• /admin/transactions
• /admin/settings
• /student/dashboard
• /student/browse
• /student/my-books
• /student/account

Project Structure

Library Management System/
|-- backend/
|   |-- package.json
|   `-- src/
|       |-- config/
|       |-- controllers/
|       |-- middleware/
|       |-- models/
|       |-- routes/
|       |-- utils/
|       `-- server.js
|-- public/
|   |-- pages/
|   |-- scripts/
|   `-- styles/
|-- vercel.json
`-- README.md

Notes

• The frontend API helper uses the current origin and calls endpoints under /api.
• Uploaded book covers are stored in public/uploads/covers.
• MongoDB must be running locally or available through the configured MONGODB_URI.
• In production, do not keep the default admin password or default JWT secret.

Contributing

If you make an enhancement, bug fix, or useful improvement, please open a pull request so it can be reviewed and merged into the project.

License - Free to Use

This project is free to use, modify, and distribute under the MIT License. You may use it for learning, personal projects, academic work, or as a starting point for your own library management system.