Sharing your collection: a link, a public catalogue, or a guest
Three ways to let other people see your books — a showcase link, a public catalogue for a tiny library, or an invitation as a guest — and exactly what each one shows and keeps private.
By the AllMyBooks team · Reviewed October 2026. Tell us through the Contact page if something here has changed.
Three ways to share
Showing your books to someone is not one thing. Showing a friend your shelf of signed poetry is different from letting a whole parish browse the church library, and both are different from letting a relative look through everything. AllMyBooks has a separate way for each, and each shows a different amount.
- A showcase: a link to a chosen set of books, for anyone you send it to.
- A public catalogue: your whole collection, searchable at a public address, for a tiny library’s readers.
- A guest: a person you invite, who signs in and can browse everything, read-only.
A showcase link
A showcase is a page at a private link that shows the covers, titles and authors of the books you choose: one tag, one shelf or location, or — as a deliberate choice — the whole library. Anyone with the link can open it without an account. It is not listed anywhere or shown to search engines, and it stops working the moment you revoke it.
Use it to show a shelf to a friend, a forum or a possible buyer. It never shows values, prices paid, where a book is kept, provenance, loans or notes, or who is in your library. Only an Admin can create or revoke one.
A public catalogue
The public catalogue is for a tiny library — a classroom, a church shelf, a community collection — that wants its readers to see everything it holds. An Admin turns on tiny-library mode and publishes the catalogue at a short address of their choosing. Anyone can then browse and search it, with no account. Each title shows whether a copy is free to borrow, never who has it.
- Reservations: an Admin can let visitors ask for a book. A member answers each request and sets a copy aside; nothing is held automatically.
- A QR code and a printable sign: put the catalogue’s address on a noticeboard, and readers open it with their phone camera.
- Turning the catalogue off takes the page offline at once.
Like a showcase, it shows catalogue details only — title, author, cover and availability — and never prices, notes, private locations or member names.
Inviting someone as a guest
A guest is a person you invite into your library with their own account. They can browse and search the whole collection and see more than the public ever does: each copy’s condition, whether it has its dust jacket, whether it is signed or a first edition, its call number, and its copy photos. That makes a guest the right choice for a relative, an adviser, or someone thinking of joining.
A guest still does not see estimated values or prices paid, where you bought a book, provenance or inscription notes, copy notes, custom fields, where each copy is shelved, or loans. Guests cannot add, edit, lend or export. Someone who helps keep the library should be a Member instead, with the same view as you.
Which one to choose
- To show off part of the collection to anyone: a showcase.
- To let a whole community browse and borrow: a public catalogue.
- To let one person look through everything, in detail, without changing anything: a guest.
- To let someone help keep the library: a member.