Your classroom library, scanned, sorted and labeled
Questions, feedback or something not working? Get in touch:
Email: dsimpsonseeds@gmail.com
Bookshelf helps teachers organize a classroom library. Scan the barcode on each book and it's added with its cover, author and description, then sort your books into bins that match your real shelves. It runs on iPhone and iPad (iOS 18 or later), and your library syncs between them through your own iCloud account.
Point the camera at a barcode and keep going. Books are looked up in the background while you scan the next one.
Each book gets suggested topics and a reader stage, from Picture Book to Young Adult. Change them in a tap.
Make a bin for each shelf. Give it a topic or level rule and new books suggest the right bin.
Print book and bin labels, or export your library as a spreadsheet.
Tap Scan books and point the camera at the barcode on the back cover. If the camera can't read it, tap the keyboard button and type the ISBN. For a book with no barcode, tap + in the Library and enter its details by hand.
It's still saved. A banner at the top of the Library shows how many books need attention: tap Show to see them, or Retry to look them up again (helpful if you were offline). Some books, especially older or self-published ones, aren't in the public catalogues; open the book and fill in the title and author yourself.
They're suggestions based on public catalogue information from Open Library and Google Books, so they won't always be right. Open a book and tap Edit next to Topics to change them; your choices are never overwritten. Books added before topics were available can be updated with Settings → Re-tag library….
A bin is one of your classroom shelves or baskets. Create one in the Bins tab and, if you like, give it a rule: a set of topics or a range of reading levels. Books that match the rule suggest that bin when you scan them or open them, and you accept with a tap. If your library already has topics, Create topic bins makes a bin for each one.
No. Levels are optional. If you use them, you can record Guided Reading (F&P), DRA, Lexile, ATOS and more. Enter one and the app suggests the others as estimates, shown with a dashed outline. In Settings you can choose which system the Library sorts by, or hide estimates entirely.
Tap the share button in the Library (or Export on iPad), choose Book labels · Avery 5160, Book labels · Avery 22806 or Bin labels, then Create File. You'll get a PDF to print or save. When printing, choose actual size (100%) so the labels line up with the sheet. To label only some books, search or filter the Library first.
Make sure both devices are signed into the same Apple Account with iCloud turned on. Settings in the app shows the sync status. If your iCloud storage is full, books keep saving on the device but can't sync until you free up space or upgrade your iCloud plan. New changes can take a minute to appear on the other device.
Google Books limits how many lookups the app can make each day. Until the limit resets, usually the next day, books are looked up on Open Library only, so a few may be missing a description or need attention. Everything else keeps working.
Yes. There's no account, no ads and no tracking. Your library is stored on your device and in your own private iCloud, which we can't see. The only thing that leaves your device is a book's ISBN, to look it up. See the Privacy Policy for details.
Please email dsimpsonseeds@gmail.com with what happened, what you expected, and your device and iOS version. A screenshot helps a lot. Thank you!