The ten-minute setup

You don’t need to set everything up before you start. BeeShelf works out of the box, and you can tune the details later. Here’s the fastest path from an empty library to a working one.

1. Sign in and catalog a few books

Open your-library.bshelf.app/staff and sign in. You’ll land on the Catalog tab, titled “Add to your shelves.”

Pick a book with a barcode, type or scan its ISBN into the box, and press Enter. In a second or two you’ll see the cover, title, author, and a summary. Press Add to catalog. Do it a few more times. Each book you add increases the counter in the sidebar.

This is the heart of BeeShelf, and it’s covered in full in Adding books by scanning.

2. Add a member

Go to the Members tab. In the Add a member panel on the right, type a name and press Add member. That’s the minimum. You can add an email, a card number, and a category now or later.

More on this in Managing members.

3. Lend a book

Go to the Circulation tab. With Check out selected, type the member’s card number and press Find. Then scan or type a book’s barcode and press Lend. You’ll see an instant confirmation with the due date.

That’s a working library: books catalogued, a member, and a loan. Full detail is in Checking books out and in.

4. Make it yours (optional)

When you have a moment, go to Settings and:

• Set your library name and brand colour. One colour re-skins the whole app, including the reader app. See Branding and white-label.
• Adjust the lending rules (loan length, renewals, fines). See Lending rules.

You can hand the reader app to members straight away. They’ll find books, borrow, and reserve without any extra setup.