The want list

The want list is your library’s shared list of books you don’t own yet but plan to acquire. On any book you don’t own, choose "Want this" to add it with a status of Wanted or On Order and an optional note — the edition you’re after, a price ceiling, or who suggested it. A book that isn’t in the catalogue at all — an old edition with no barcode, say — is added from the want list’s "Add a book" with just its title, as described in Finding a book and adding it by hand. Everyone in the library sees and can manage the list; it’s not a private wishlist. Wanted books are never counted as owned — they don’t show up in your totals, value, insights, or exports.

The point is the in-store moment. When you scan or look up a book that’s on the want list, the result tells you it’s on your list — so a scan now answers both "do we already own this?" and "did we mean to buy this?". Adding a wanted book to your library — by any route — automatically takes it off the list and files it under Acquired history, and the confirmation notes it was on your want list. Wanting one edition and buying a different one leaves the original want in place; you resolve that yourself.

Open the want list from My Library → Library tools → Books → Want list (it also has its own link in the navigation bar). There you can change a book between Wanted and On Order, edit its note, mark it acquired, or remove it, and switch to the Acquired history view for books you’ve since bought. The "Print" button beside that switch prints whichever view is showing — title, author, ISBN, status, and note — to take to a book sale.

A want can carry your library’s own photo of the book — useful for recognising an old edition on a crowded shelf. Add it when you save the want, or later: on the website choose Edit on the entry, then "Add photo" or "Replace photo" ("Remove photo" takes it off); in the phone app, tap the entry and choose "Add a photo". The photo shows first on the want list, and tapping it opens a larger view with the year, edition and publisher beside it, so you can compare it with the book in your hand.

It is a recognition aid only. It doesn’t change the catalogue’s cover for anyone else, another library wanting the same book keeps its own photo, and it is never shown to Guests or on public showcases. In the phone app the list stays text first: only entries with a photo show a small one, and none are shown when you’re offline.

1. On the want list, choose "I acquired this" on the entry.
2. Compare. The screen shows what the want records — its photo, year, edition and publisher, with anything missing marked unknown — and asks whether the copy in your hand is that edition.
3. If it is, set the condition and shelf if you like and choose "Yes — add this copy". The copy is added, uses the want’s photo as its cover unless you choose another (or none), and the want moves to Acquired history.
4. If it isn’t, choose "It’s a different edition": the book is typed in as its own record and the original want stays on the list.

Nothing changes until you confirm, so backing out leaves the want and its photo exactly as they were. If two people confirm the same want at once, only one copy is added and the other is told it was already acquired. Deleting an entry from Acquired history later never removes the photo a copy is still using.

"Check a book" answers "do we already own this, or want it?" for a book with no barcode. Open it from Add a Book or the want list on the website, or from the Scan tab or the want list in the phone app, and type the title (the author is optional). It searches only your active library’s owned books and want list — not outside catalogues, and not the same thing as searching My Library.

Each result is a possible match, even when the title is identical: it shows the year, edition and publisher (or says they’re unknown), how many copies you own and whether it’s Wanted or On Order — an edition can be both. Choose a wanted one to acquire it as above, or type the book in if it’s a different edition. "No matching record found" means nothing in your library has a title like that, not that you certainly don’t own it; if checking is unavailable, it says so instead.

With no signal, the phone app checks the copy of your library it keeps — every owned and wanted book, including ones you have never opened on that phone — and says when it was last synced. Offline results show no photos, and adding or acquiring waits for a signal.

Adding to and managing the want list, its photos and Check a book are available to Library admins and members. Guests see the list read-only, without photos. The want list is never shown on public showcases or to guests browsing your library.