Glossary

A quick reference for the terms you’ll meet across BeeShelf.

Term	What it means
Catalog	Your library’s full list of titles and the copies of each. The Catalog tab is where you add to it.
Title	A book as a work, for example Born a Crime. One title can have many copies.
Edition	A specific published version of a title, with its own ISBN, publisher, and year.
Copy (item)	A single physical book on the shelf, with its own barcode. Three copies of one title are three items.
ISBN	The number in the barcode on most modern books. BeeShelf uses it to look up a book’s details.
Member	A person on your library’s roster. Staff add them, import them from a roster, or readers register themselves if your join policy allows it. Being a member isn’t the same as being able to borrow: a reader awaiting approval, or one who hasn’t confirmed their email, can browse but not borrow yet.
Category	A group of members (for example Students, Staff) that lending rules can differ between.
Join policy	How readers get onto your roster, set in Settings under How readers join. Four choices: staff-only (no self sign-up), open (instant), approval (a librarian approves each one), or an email-domain allowlist (matching domains join automatically, everyone else waits). Approvals appear under Members → Awaiting approval.
Loan	A book checked out to a member, with a due date.
Hold	A reservation. A member waits in a queue, then collects the book when a copy is free.
Renewal	Extending a loan’s due date, up to the limit your rules allow.
Fine	A charge for an overdue book. Off by default; set per day in the lending rules.
Request	A member asking the library to get a book it doesn’t have. Requests are ranked by demand.
Stocktake	Checking the shelves against the catalog by scanning, to find what’s missing.
Condition flag	A fact about a copy (not for loan, damaged, lost, withdrawn, restricted). See Item condition flags.
Slug	The short name in your library’s web address, for example riverside in riverside.beeshelf.com.
Staff Console	The console where librarians run the library, at your-library.beeshelf.com/staff. Built for a desktop screen, but it works on a phone or tablet too: below 900px the sidebar folds into a hamburger menu.
Reader app	The phone-friendly app where members find and borrow books.
White-label	Putting your library’s name and colour on the app instead of ours. See Branding.