Getting Started
From zero to cataloged in five articles
Your First Book (And Why It's Already Wrong)
Adding a book manually, what fields matter, what to skip — and why perfection is the enemy of a cataloged shelf.
Library Lookup: Let the World's Libraries Do Your Typing
How to search 26 providers across 19 countries, pick a source, and import metadata without lifting a pen.
Collections, Tags, and the Illusion of Order
Library vs Wishlist, custom collections, colored tags, and the deeply human need to put things in boxes.
Enrich Mode: Stealing Metadata, Politely
How to pull in missing fields from library catalogs, compare differences, and merge data without losing what you already have.
From Spreadsheet to Civilization
Excel import, template download, column mapping, and the emotional journey from rows to records.
AI Book Scanning: Point, Shoot, Catalog
Take three photographs, get thirty-one fields, and sit down because that's genuinely all it takes.
The Barcode Scanner (And Why Your Phone Vibrates)
Point your camera at a barcode. Feel the haptic buzz. Watch the ISBN appear.
Cataloging
Every field, explained with unreasonable thoroughness
The Title Page Is the Only Page That Matters
Why we catalog from the title page, not the cover or spine — and how to record title, subtitle, and series correctly.
Authors, Editors, Translators, and 66 Other Ways to Be Involved
69 MARC relator codes, the "Last, First" format, and why getting names right is harder than it sounds.
First Edition, Third Impression, Second State: Now You're Confused
Edition, impression, issue, and state — four words that mean different things and cost different amounts of money.
Measuring Your Books (Without Being Weird About It)
Height, width, depth, weight, pagination, format, and the ancient art of counting pages in Roman numerals.
49 Ways to Dress a Book
Every cover type in Shelvd, from full calf to paper wrappers — what they are, how to identify them, and why they matter.
Paper Types, Edge Treatments, and Other Things Your Friends Don't Want to Hear About
Laid, wove, vellum, India, Bible — plus gilt, marbled, deckle, and sprinkled edges. You're welcome.
Fine, Near Fine, and the Lies We Tell Ourselves
The standard grading scale, how to write honest condition notes, and why "good" doesn't mean good.
ISBN, OCLC, LCCN, DDC, LCC, UDC: An Alphabet Soup That Actually Matters
The complete guide to book identifiers — history, structure, where to find them, how they flow into Shelvd, and why they matter for every collector.
ISBD: The Catalog Entry Nobody Writes by Hand Anymore
The complete guide to ISBD catalog entries — every area, every punctuation rule, worked examples, and how Shelvd generates them in thirteen languages.
3,887 Ways to Categorize a Book (And Still Get It Wrong)
BISAC subject headings — primary, secondary, tertiary — and the quiet futility of putting books in exactly one box.
Photographing Your Books: 51 Ways to Label an Image
The image upload system — 51 book part labels across six groups, what to photograph for sales vs. insurance, and why the title page matters more than the cover.
AI Enrich: Teaching Old Books New Tricks
You already have the photos. Now let the AI look at what you've got and fill in what you missed.
Provenance & History
Who owned it, what happened to it, what it's worth
Who Had This Book Before You (And Why That Matters)
The provenance chain in Shelvd: owner types, evidence types, associations, and the detective work of book history.
A Medical Record for Books
Tracking condition over time — logging changes, dating observations, and building a health record your book deserves.
What's It Worth? A History of Guessing
Seven valuation sources, trend tracking over time, provenance auto-sync, and the art of estimating value without a crystal ball.
64 Doors to the Outside World
External link types across eight categories — from WorldCat to Christie's — and how to connect your books to the wider bibliographic universe.
Search & Discovery
Finding books in your library and the world's
Finding That One Book You Know You Own
Global search, advanced search with 14 fields and AND/OR logic, filters, sorting, and the eternal quest for that one Elzevir.
The Awkward Conversation: You Own This Twice
How duplicate detection works, what it matches on, bulk cleanup, and the uncomfortable truth about your purchasing habits.
A Grand Tour of 32 Libraries in 21 Countries
Every lookup provider in Shelvd — what it holds, what it's good at, its quirks, and when to reach for it.
Data & Export
Getting data in, out, and occasionally into shape
Getting Data In and Out Without Losing Your Mind
Excel import with template, CSV/JSON/Excel export, what goes in each format, and what doesn't.
Numbers About Your Books (the Other Kind of Value)
The statistics dashboard: key metrics, distributions, top lists, and what the numbers reveal about your collecting habits.
The Audit: A Gentle Reckoning
Ten health checks, a score out of 100, expandable fix lists, and the motivational guilt trip your catalog needs.
The Activity Log: Everything You Did, Timestamped
Thirty-three actions tracked, one timeline per book, and a feed that remembers what you did last Tuesday better than you do.
Settings & Account
Configuring Shelvd to your peculiar specifications
Everything in Settings, Explained
Profile, security, locale, currency, display preferences — every toggle and dropdown, demystified.
Choosing Your Libraries
Enable, disable, and reorder your lookup providers — because not every library is relevant to every collection.
Choosing Your External Links
Activate, deactivate, and create custom link types — 64 system types across eight categories, plus your own.
Tiers, Plans, and What You Get for Your Money
Three tiers. One free. Two that cost money. Here's what's behind each door.
AI Scan Credits: A Brief Economy
Monthly allowances, purchase packs, and the surprisingly simple math of turning photographs into metadata.
Glossary & Reference
The encyclopedic bit
A Glossary for People Who Collect Books and Arguments
150+ terms from the world of rare books, antiquarian trade, and bibliographic description — defined with unreasonable precision and occasional humor.
A Visual Guide to Foxing, Toning, and Everything Brown
The vocabulary of paper degradation and book damage — what each term means, what causes it, and how to describe it without crying.
From Chain Stitch to Perfect Binding: A Timeline
Historical binding techniques from the medieval scriptorium to the modern paperback — identification tips included.
The 76 Formats (And Why "Large Octavo" Is Not "Small Quarto")
Every bibliographic format in Shelvd with dimensions, abbreviations, and historical context — from broadsheet to 128mo.
The 69 MARC Relator Codes, Decoded
Every contributor role in Shelvd — from "author" to "woodcutter" — with definitions and guidance on when to use each one.
1,177 Ways to Organize All Human Knowledge (Using Only Numbers)
The complete Dewey Decimal Classification in Shelvd — every main class, division, and section, with guidance for the collector who wants to understand what librarians did with their books.
8,253 Classification Ranges (And Why Letters Beat Numbers)
The complete Library of Congress Classification in Shelvd — every class, subclass, and range, with context for the collector who encounters LCC numbers in catalog records.
2,423 Ways to Classify a Book (With Colons, Brackets, and Belgian Ambition)
The complete Universal Decimal Classification in Shelvd — every main class and subdivision, with context for the collector who encounters UDC numbers in European library records.
682 Codes for the Dutch Book Trade (And Why Your Belgian Bookshop Uses Them Too)
The complete NUR classification in Shelvd — every code across ten categories, with context for collectors in the Netherlands and Flanders.
For Dealers
Tools for people who sell what we hoard
Cataloging to Sell: What Buyers Actually Look For
Professional cataloging standards for the trade — which fields matter, what condition notes to write, and how to describe a book so someone buys it.
Trade Catalogs: How 13 Countries Describe the Same Book
SLAM, VDA, NVvA, ABAA, and ten other national conventions — format terms, binding vocabulary, condition grades, and why a French "in-8" is a British "8vo".
The Catalog Sheet: One Page Per Book
PDF generation in six paper sizes — what's included, how to customize it, and when to hand one to a prospective buyer.
Bulk Image Import: 500 Photos Before Lunch
Name your files correctly, drag them in, and watch them land on the right books. No clicking through 500 edit pages required.