Booklister for Libraries

Booklister is free, including for libraries. The tool at booklister.org is the full tool with no restrictions, and it always will be. There is nothing behind a paywall.

That said, I can sometimes set up a branded instance for a library that wants one. A branded instance is the same tool with your library's name, logo, and subdomain baked in, plus staff accounts so your team can manage their own access. It's something I do on a case-by-case basis when I have the time, not a service I sell.

What a branded instance includes

Your library's name and logo become the defaults, so every booklist your staff creates starts on-brand without manual setup. You get a subdomain like libraryname.booklister.org, and a designated admin at your library can add and remove staff through a simple admin console without going through me. You would need to provide a logo image for your library with a min resolution of 3000 x 900 px so that it prints at high quality. The underlying tool is identical to the public one. If the branded instance ever has an issue, your staff can fall back to booklister.org and keep working.

Catalog integrations

If your library wants Booklister to search its own catalog system instead of (or alongside) Open Library, that's possible but it depends on the system. If this is something you're interested in, get in touch and we can talk through what it would involve.

Companion browser extension

If your catalog runs on BiblioCommons, there's a free browser extension called Booklister Helper that captures titles straight from catalog pages into Booklister with one click. Staff browse the catalog the way they normally would, click the extension's toolbar icon, and the title, author, call number, and cover land on their clipboard ready to paste into Booklister's Quick Add. It's the fastest way to build a booklist when your library catalog is BiblioCommons-powered. The extension is free for anyone to install regardless of whether your library has a branded instance.

AI description drafter (the Magic button)

Branded instances can optionally include an AI feature that drafts a short description for each title in your booklist. Staff click a wand icon on a title, an LLM-drafted description fills in, and staff read every draft and edit or replace it before publishing.

Unlike the rest of Booklister, the drafter is not something I can commit to providing for free across the board. Every click costs me a small amount in LLM API charges, and that scales with usage in a way the rest of the tool doesn't. So this feature is opt-in, by request, and entirely at my discretion. I expect to enable it only for a small number of libraries. If you'd find it useful, mention it when you get in touch, but please don't count on it as part of a branded instance. I also reserve the right to turn it off for any library at any time if costs grow past what I can carry on my own. The full policy is in the Terms.

Setting expectations

This is a side project I maintain around my day job. I can't promise I'll be able to set up every library that asks, and I can't commit to specific timelines or dedicated support. I work on bugs and improvements when I can, and anything I build rolls out to the public tool and every branded instance alike. If you're looking for a vendor relationship with SLAs and guaranteed response times, this isn't that.

If your library ever decides to stop using a branded instance, send me a note from the contact page and I'll remove the configuration, staff accounts, and branding. Download anything you still want (saved .booklist files, exported PDFs) before the takedown.

Getting in touch

If you're curious whether a branded instance makes sense for your library, the best first step is a short note from the contact page. No commitment needed on either side.