HACKER Q&A
📣 LorenDB

Software to share your library with friends?


I and some friends would like to set up a shared library program where we can see the contents of each other's bookshelves and then borrow books from each other easily. I was looking around for suitable software; TinyCat looks reasonable but I'm not sure if it's the perfect solution to this problem. Do you have any recommendations?

I'm happy to self host but that's not a requirement. Bonus points for good FOSS solutions.

Edit: in case you're wondering, I'm talking about physical dead-tree books, not ebooks.


  👤 mttjj Accepted Answer ✓
I haven’t used it myself but I was going to suggest TinyCat. However, you mentioned that it isn’t suitable without going into specifics. Based on my understanding of the software and of your requirements it seems like a great option. Can you expand on what you mean by saying it won’t work for you?

👤 sfink
Presumably you must want something more than a simple spreadsheet that lists all the books with their owners and current borrowers. It might help to know what you have in mind. Cover images? ISBN links? Import wizard? Personal reviews?

👤 reyostallenberg
Maybe you can configure https://directus.io/ to your needs

👤 schwartzworld
Calibre, alternatively you can pretty easily just serve ebooks from a standard webpage.