Questions and answers
What Stacks is, what it isn't, and how the lending works.
The idea
What is Stacks?
A lending library for the books you own. You list the books on your shelf, your friends list theirs, and you borrow from each other. Each book page knows where that copy is, who has had it, and what the people who read it thought.
How is it different from Goodreads or StoryGraph?
Those are for tracking your reading: what you've read, how you rated it, what to read next. Stacks is about the physical copies and the people around you. The unit isn't “a book” but “your copy of it”, and the point is to get it into a friend's hands.
So there are no star ratings, no reviews of books in general, no recommendation engine and no feed of strangers. Notes stay with the copy as it passes between friends, like a penciled line inside the cover. If you already keep a list on Goodreads or StoryGraph, you can import it, reviews and all (five stars become a heart), and carry on using both. There's a fuller comparison too.
Do I have to lend my books out?
No. Every request comes to you and you can decline it. Plenty of people use Stacks as a catalog of what they own and borrow from friends without lending much themselves.
Does it cost anything?
It's free for up to 100 books (200 on a shelf you share at home), enough to start with the shelf you lend from most, and as many friends as you like. Stacks Plus lifts the book limit for $3 a month or $24 a year; see pricing. Stacks is also open source. Book details and covers come from Open Library, the Internet Archive's catalog.
Borrowing and lending
How does borrowing work?
Search for a book and you'll see which friends have it. Ask to borrow it; the owner gets a notification and lends it to you with a due date (four weeks by default). You'll both see it on your home page, with reminders as the date gets close. When you hand it back, either of you marks it returned. Owners can also hand a book straight to a friend without being asked.
Can I lend to someone who isn't on Stacks?
Yes, two ways, from the book's page. With their email address, they get one email about the loan, with a link to see it and join if they like. With just their name, nothing is sent at all: it goes down under their name, and the reminders come to you instead. Good for neighbors, family, and anyone who'd rather not sign up.
What if someone else has the book I want?
Get in line. When the book comes back, Stacks asks the owner on your behalf and lets you know. Lines are first come, first served, and your place shows on your home page. When it's your turn, whoever has the book can pass it straight to you, without taking it back to the owner first.
What do my friends see?
Your shelf: every book you own, whether it's in or out, and the notes on each copy. Everyone in a group with you counts as a friend. Nobody else sees anything unless you make a share link, which gives you a public shelf to send to anyone. Your want-to-read list and email settings are yours alone.
Can I add books I don't own?
Not to your shelf, since a friend might ask to borrow it. A book you've read from the library or elsewhere goes on your Also read list, with your note and heart. One you'd like to read goes on your want-to-read list: Stacks tells you when a friend has one and lets you ask for it.
Groups and classrooms
How do groups work?
Start a group from Friends, then Groups and share its link. Everyone who joins can see and borrow from everyone else's shelf, no friending needed, so a whole book club, office or family can lend to each other at once. Books you keep off your public shelf stay out of your groups too. Your groups show on your home page with how many books there are to borrow, and a group's books can be sorted by the most lent.
Our book club shares one copy. Does it have to go back each time?
No. The next reader gets in line, and whoever has the book passes it straight on from its page. The owner hears where their book has gone, and the new reader gets the usual due date and reminders.
I run a classroom library. Does Stacks work for that?
Yes. Paste your class list into the check-out desk, then scan a book and tap a name to lend it, and scan it again when it comes back. A barcode reader plugged into a computer works as well as a phone's camera, and several copies of one book are handled as a class set. Students need no accounts or email, and only the names you type are kept. More on classroom libraries.
Notes and reading
What's a reader note?
A heart, or a line or two, left on a copy by someone who has read it. Only readers of that copy can leave one: the owner, whoever's borrowing it, and anyone who has borrowed it before. Notes stay with the copy, so the next reader finds them. Read a book somewhere else? You can note a friend's copy of it too, and your note follows the book if it later lands on your shelf.
Can I keep track of what I've read?
Yes. Mark a book read on its page and filter your shelf by read and not read; books you read elsewhere go on your Also read list. An import brings your reading history over too. It's personal, so two people sharing a shelf each have their own marks.
Getting books in
What's the fastest way to add a lot of books?
On a phone, open Search and tap Scan: point the camera at each barcode and the books add themselves. Already keep a list? Import it from Goodreads, StoryGraph, LibraryThing, Libib or any spreadsheet with Title and Author columns, or paste a list of titles. Books you own go on your shelf, ones you've read on Also read, and ones you want on your want-to-read list.
A book has the wrong cover or details. Can I fix it?
Yes. At the bottom of the book page, Edit details or cover lets you change anything, pick another cover from Open Library, or refresh the details from there.
Something missing? Send feedback, or find the code and an issue tracker on GitHub.