Most community libraries are one person with a spreadsheet, a shelf of donated books, and no budget for software. DITA Platform gives you a real catalog, real lending and an app, free up to fifty readers.
A community library dies the day its volunteer moves away, because everything it knew lived in one person's head and one laptop.
Everything is in one place, and anyone you trust can pick it up tomorrow.
The pattern is the same whether the shelf is in a village hall or a spare room.
That's the normal case, not a problem. Most community libraries begin by typing in what's on the shelf.
Add titles by hand, or scan barcodes with a phone. Covers and details fill themselves in where we can find them.
If you already keep a list, upload it. We'll clean it up and match what we can.
Standard Ebooks and the Open Textbook Library, by subject, so the shelf isn't empty on day one.
Tell us about an open source we don't carry. If the licence allows it we ingest it, and every library gets it.
Fifty readers costs nothing, forever, with the whole product. Beyond that it's $29 a month for 250 readers.
Set the library up and see whether it works before anyone pays anything.
Upload everything you have. We never charge by title or by gigabyte.
If the budget genuinely isn't there, a funder can cover it. Apply and tell us who you serve.
Your catalogue records, collections and reader list export in open formats. Nothing is held hostage.
No card, no sales call. Set it up in an afternoon and see whether your neighbours use it.