Tiny-library patron checkout

If you run a tiny library — a classroom, a church shelf, a Little Free Library, a community group — you can turn your Library into one and check books out to patrons. A patron is a lightweight record in your Library: a name, an optional email or other contact, an optional roster number, and a patron code the site mints for them (for example P-7K3Q9M). Patrons are not members: they never sign in and get no access to your catalogue. Every patron checkout creates or reuses that record and links the loan to it, while the loan still carries the patron’s name — so a patron checkout is an ordinary loan on that copy, shows up on the Loans page alongside the rest, and is marked returned exactly like any other loan. Loans you recorded to a patron by name before patron records existed stay valid; you can link them to a record from the Loans page ("Link to patron") or, per patron, with "Link older loans" on the Patrons page.

1. An admin turns the mode on first — from My Library → Library tools → Settings → Tiny-library mode → "Enable tiny-library mode". On the same page an admin can set a default loan period in days: patron checkouts prefill their due date from it (members can still change or clear the date on each checkout). Lends to people never get a default.
2. Check out from a copy’s Lending section: choose "Check out", pick an existing patron by name or code, or type a new name (and an optional contact) — the record is created on checkout — set or clear the due date, and confirm.
3. Or use the circulation desk (My Library → Library tools → Lending → Circulation desk, or the button on the Loans page) for a queue: scan or type the patron’s card code, then scan each book’s label — its QR, the printed #XXXXXX copy id, or its ISBN — and press "Check out" once for the whole basket. A label printed since labels began naming their copy adds exactly that copy, with no choosing; if that copy is out, marked missing, or not in this library ("That label’s copy isn’t in this library"), the desk says so and adds nothing — it never swaps in another copy. Checkout still re-checks every copy when you press it. An older label or an ISBN names only the book: if it has several available copies you pick the one in your hand; if every copy is out, the desk says who has them. Switch the desk to "Return" and scan copies the same way to mark them returned. A USB/Bluetooth keyboard-wedge scanner works; typing and pressing Enter works too.
4. Patrons page (My Library → Library tools → Lending → Patrons): add, edit and search patrons, import them from a CSV (admins; a "name" column is required, with optional email, contact/phone and external_id columns, up to 500 rows), and select patrons to print cards. A card shows the name, the code, and a QR that opens the desk with that patron selected.
5. Loans page: "Print / export report" gives a printable list of everything out, grouped by patron with overdue patrons first, and the same rows as a CSV. For a patron with an email address, "Email nudge" sends one reminder email naming the book, copy id and due date — at most one per loan per day, and only when the site has email configured.
6. When the book comes back, "Mark returned" on the loan — from the book’s Lending section, the Loans page, or the desk in Return mode.

Each copy also shows how many times it has been loaned and when it last went out, computed from loan history, and the library list gains "Most loaned" and "Longest idle" sorts plus "Never loaned" and "Not loaned since" filters for weeding — all only while tiny-library mode is on. This remains deliberately high-trust and simple: there are no patron accounts or passwords (the code identifies a patron, it does not authenticate them), no holds or reservations, and no fines. A member records each checkout and return on the patron’s behalf.

Tiny-library mode is Admin-enabled and off by default — a household or casual Library sees none of this until an admin turns it on. Once enabled, the desk, patron records, cards, report and email nudge are available to admins and members, not guests, and Circulation desk and Patrons appear under Library tools → Lending (turning the mode off takes them away again, pins included); the default loan period, patron import and deleting a patron are admin-only.

• Sharing — public catalogue (OPAC) →
• AllMyBooks for church libraries →