Getting started
Signing in
How staff and readers sign in, with a password or with Google, and how to reset one.
Everyone signs in at the same door. The quickest is app.beeshelf.com/login: enter your email and password and BeeShelf finds your library for you. If you have accounts at more than one library, it offers a picker. You can also sign in at your library’s own address, your-library.beeshelf.com/login, which uses the short name (slug) your library was set up with. Either way one form serves staff and readers: BeeShelf checks your details and sends staff to the Staff Console and readers to the reader app.
Staff
Sign in at app.beeshelf.com/login or at your-library.beeshelf.com/login with your email and password. There’s no separate staff login: BeeShelf recognises staff credentials and opens the Staff Console on the Catalog tab. (Opening your-library.beeshelf.com/staff directly still works and shows the same sign-in form.) The first time you sign in to a brand-new library, BeeShelf takes you to the guided Set up screen instead, where you name your library, pick a brand colour, and add your first books.
If you’re not sure of your library’s address, sign in at app.beeshelf.com/login instead and BeeShelf will route you to the right library. If you open a library address nobody has claimed, you’ll see “No library at this address yet”: check the spelling of the slug with your administrator.
If you’re a staffer who signed in to the reader app with Google, the Staff console link in the header opens the console without a second sign-in, provided your Google email matches your staff account. If you signed in with a reader password instead, you’ll be asked for your staff password. That’s deliberate.
Readers
Readers open your-library.beeshelf.com and tap the profile chip in the top-right of the header. There’s no tab bar. From there they can:
- Sign in with an email or a library card number, plus a password.
- Continue with Google. A Google-verified email also satisfies the email check BeeShelf asks for before you can borrow or place holds.
- Create an account with a name, email, and a password of at least eight characters, if your library allows readers to register themselves. Depending on how your library is set up you may be signed in straight away, or your request may wait for a librarian to approve it (BeeShelf emails you when you’re in). Libraries that don’t offer self sign-up show a note asking you to speak to a librarian instead.
Forgotten passwords and new staff accounts
Staff accounts are created by an admin in your library, or by an emailed invite link that’s valid for 48 hours (an admin can resend it). Forgotten your password? Use Forgot password? on the sign-in screen and BeeShelf emails you a link to set a new one. That works for staff and readers alike. Platform owners reset theirs at app.beeshelf.com/admin/reset.
Readers who forget a password use the same Forgot password? link. If the email never arrives, a librarian can look them up under Members and check the address on file.