Scan an ISBN, grade the copy and give it a shelf code. Netiva’s AI agent builds the web app around it — a public catalog, holds and simple lending — while you watch the live preview.
Build a book inventory web app for a used bookstore that also runs a small lending shelf. Store each title once by ISBN with author, publisher, year, format and section. Store each physical copy with a stock number, book and dust jacket condition grades, shelf code, price and status: on shelf, on hold, on loan, sold or withdrawn. Staff add books from a phone by scanning or typing the ISBN. Publish a public catalog that lists only copies on the shelf, with a hold request on each book page. Track loans with due dates and let borrowers sign in to see their own loans.
A used bookstore can hold three copies of the same novel in three conditions on two different shelves, and a spreadsheet rarely keeps up. When a customer calls about a title, someone still walks the aisles to check. Small libraries and collectors hit the same wall with lending: who has the book, and when is it due back? A book inventory app built with Netiva records each title once by ISBN and each physical copy on its own, with a condition grade, shelf code and status, so your catalog, holds and loans all read from the same records.
Staff scan the barcode on the back cover or type the ISBN on a phone, confirm the title and add each copy with its own condition grade, jacket grade, notes and price.
Every copy carries a shelf code, and its section comes from the title record, so staff can walk straight to it. Hold requests and want-list entries share one collection with a status the team can filter and sort.
Title and copy records feed list and detail pages on your site, so readers can browse by section or author, compare the available copies of a book and ask you to hold one.
Check a copy out to a borrower with a due date and check it back in when it returns. Borrowers sign in to see what they have out, and reminder emails go out before the due date.
Netiva keeps your records in built-in collections. Here’s a starting structure — the agent adapts it to your prompt, and you can change it any time.
One record per edition and format, shared by every copy you hold of it.
Each physical book, with its own grade, shelf code, price and status.
Who has a copy, since when and when it’s due back.
Holds on a copy in stock and want-list entries for books you don’t have yet, each linked to a copy once one is found.
Required field. Types are Netiva collection field types.
A typical first version. Ask the agent for more, or annotate the preview to change any of them.
Copies on the shelf grouped by section, with filters for author and format and a search box for title, author or ISBN.
PublicOne title with its cover and details. Each available copy shows its condition, jacket grade and price, and a form on the page sends a hold request.
PublicScan or type an ISBN, confirm or fill in the title, then add one or more copies with grades, notes, price and shelf code.
Your teamOpen holds and fresh want-list matches sorted by shelf code, with a button that marks each one ready for pickup and emails the reader.
Your teamBooks out on loan with their due dates, sorted into due-soon and overdue tabs. A check-in marks the book returned and puts the copy back on the shelf.
Your teamA borrower’s own loans with due dates, plus the holds and want-list entries they have open.
Signed-in usersTell Netiva whether you sell, lend or both, how your shelves are coded and which condition grades you use. The agent drafts collections for titles, copies, loans and requests.
Add a single section through the intake screen or the collection grid, then ask the collection assistant to tidy author names and fill in missing formats across many rows at once.
Open the public catalog and a book page in the live preview. Annotate anything that reads wrong — such as prices showing on lending-only copies — and the agent fixes it.
Publish in one click and share the sign-in link with staff and borrowers. Each change is checkpointed, so you can roll back if a later edit to the catalog goes wrong.
| Criterion | With Netiva | Traditional build |
|---|---|---|
| Condition and jacket grades | A book and jacket grade stored on each copy and shown in the public catalog before a reader visits | Grades kept in the buyer’s head, or a scribble on the flyleaf nobody else can read |
| Lending records | Loans with due dates, an overdue list and reminder emails to each borrower | A card file or notebook of who borrowed what, checked by hand for late returns |
| Getting started | Describe what you need in chat and watch it take shape in a live preview | Hire developers, or stitch together templates, plugins and a hosting plan |
| Content and data | Built-in collections with nine field types, bound straight to your pages | Set up and connect a separate database or CMS |
| Making changes | Ask the agent; every change is checkpointed and reversible | File a ticket, wait for a sprint, redeploy |
| Hosting and domain | Global hosting and automatic SSL; connect a custom domain from the Starter plan | Buy hosting, then install and renew SSL certificates yourself |
| Code ownership | Clean production code you own and can export | Locked into a template, plugin or agency setup |
Books bought over the counter are graded and shelved the same day, with the stock number penciled inside the cover. When a scanned ISBN matches the wanted ISBN on an open request, the intake screen flags it and links the copy to that request before it reaches the shelf.
Volunteers check books out on a phone at the lending shelf and borrowers sign in to see their due dates, while a weekly overdue email replaces the notebook by the door.
A collector records each first edition’s printing, signature and book and jacket grades, keeps the catalog behind a sign-in and tracks the handful of titles lent out to friends.
ISBNs have had 13 digits since 2007. Older books may show only 10 digits, and books printed before the 1970s have none. A back-cover barcode isn’t always an ISBN, so those copies are typed in by hand. Unchanged reprints keep their ISBN, so note first printings on the copy.
Netiva doesn’t supply book metadata or cover images. ISBN lookups need a book data API you choose, so check its terms for cover use and request limits, and review filled-in details before saving.
The app tracks copies, holds and loans; it doesn’t take payment at the counter. Mark copies sold as they leave, or pull sales from your point-of-sale provider’s API if it offers one.
Loan histories show what people read. Nearly every US state treats library records as confidential, so if you run a library, check your state’s rules and delete returned loans you no longer need.
Yes. The intake screen can use a phone’s camera to read the ISBN barcode most books carry on the back cover. Older stock may have no barcode, or a retail barcode that isn’t the ISBN, so staff can type the ISBN instead. The app can also call a book data API you choose to fill in the title, author and publisher. Books printed without an ISBN are entered by hand.
Each edition and format is one title record, and each physical book is a copy linked to it. Three copies of the same paperback share the ISBN, author and cover, but each has its own stock number, condition grade, price, shelf code and status. The book page in your public catalog lists every copy on the shelf, so readers can pick the one they want.
Most used-book dealers work from the trade’s shared scale: As New or Fine, Near Fine, Very Good, Good, Fair and Poor, sometimes with a plus or minus. The dust jacket gets its own grade after the book’s, as in VG/G. The condition field stores whichever scale you pick, and copy notes hold details such as ex-library stamps, an inscription or a first printing.
Yes, for simple lending. Each loan links a copy to a borrower with checkout and due dates. Borrowers sign in to see their own loans, and the app can email a reminder before a book is due. It isn’t a replacement for a full integrated library system with MARC cataloging, patron barcodes or interlibrary loan.
Yes. Title and copy records can drive catalog and book pages on your site, and the catalog shows only copies whose status is on shelf. A reader can search by title, author or ISBN and send a hold request, which lands in your requests list for staff to pull from the shelf. Marking that request ready for pickup emails the reader.
Yes. Netiva writes clean, framework-standard code that you can read, edit and export whenever you like, with no proprietary runtime. You can build and test the catalog on the free plan; publishing it on your shop’s or library’s own domain needs the Starter plan or higher. Every change is checkpointed, so an edit can be rolled back.
Drafted with AI assistance from Netiva’s product pages and reviewed by the Netiva team. Example data models, screens and prompts are illustrative starting points, not customer projects.
Describe it in a sentence and watch Netiva’s agent build it. Free to start — no credit card required.