Sharing Books with a Library

Share your personal books with a library to make them available for other members to borrow.

How Sharing Works

When you share a book with a library:

1. The book appears in the library’s collection
2. Other members can see it and request to borrow it
3. You still own the book — You approve each loan request
4. The book stays in My Books too

Sharing is different from giving away. You’re making your book available to lend, not transferring ownership.

Sharing a Book

1. Go to My Books and open the book you want to share
2. Tap the Your copy bar near the top of the book page (it shows how many copies you own and where the book is shared), then tap Manage
3. In the Sharing section of the dialog, toggle on the library you want to share with
4. If required, wait for admin approval

Note: Your book may need admin approval before it appears in the library. Admins review submissions to ensure books fit the library’s collection.

Approval Status

When you share a book, it may be:

• Auto-approved — If you’re a library admin/owner or a trusted member
• Waiting for admin — Waiting for a library admin to review
• Approved — Visible in the library
• Not accepted — The library didn’t add it. The reason shows under the book on Manage sharing, if the admin gave one

You’ll receive a notification when your book is approved or rejected.

Per-Library Sharing

You can share a book with one library but not another:

• Share at your church library but not your book club
• Temporarily stop lending in one library while keeping it active elsewhere
• Control where each book is available

Each library has its own toggle in the book’s Your copy manage dialog.

If you switch sharing back on for a library that has since reached its book limit, the share waits until the library has room again rather than turning on right away. See Subscription plans and limits.

Managing All Your Sharing for a Library

To share or unshare many books at once, use the Sharing page instead of toggling each book individually:

1. Go to My Books and tap Shared at the top of the page (if you belong to more than one library, pick which library first)
2. The Sharing page shows every book in My Books with its sharing status for that library
3. Toggle books on or off individually, or use Share all / Unshare all
4. Search and filter by status (Shared, Not shared, Pending, Declined) to focus the list

The library you’re managing is shown at the top of the page. If you belong to more than one library, use the library selector there to switch without leaving the page.

You can also reach this page from a library: open the library and tap Share your books.

If you already have books when you join a library, Agathos may prompt you to Share all after the welcome orientation — that opens Manage sharing with the Share all confirmation ready. The same prompt appears after you create a library if My Books already has books. Not now hides it for this visit and asks again the next time you open the library, until you share a book, skip Share books you already own on the setup checklist (or hide the checklist), or skip Share a book with your library on the home setup list. You can also open the library and tap Share your books.

Note: The Pending filter here tracks library submission approval (whether the library admin has accepted your book). It’s separate from the catalog review link on My Books, which tracks Agathos Books’ platform catalog review.

When Someone Requests Your Book

When a library member wants to borrow your shared book:

1. You receive a notification
2. Review the request — you’ll see how many of the borrower’s recent returns were on time, whether they’ve borrowed from you before, and a short heads-up if one applies
3. Tap Approve to start the loan, or Decline if you can’t lend right now

See How lending works for the full loan process.

If you declined because the book is gone

Choosing Book is no longer available when you decline stops sharing that copy with every library, so no one else can request it. The book stays in My Books.

This one sticks until you turn it back on. To do that:

1. Open the book
2. Tap the Your copy bar, then Manage
3. Tap Make available to lend

That lists the copy again in the libraries it was removed from (a library may need admin approval or have reached its book limit). The Your copy bar reads Not available to lend until you do this.

If the book is gone and nobody has asked for it yet, tap Remove book in the same panel instead. If a copy is still out on loan and you want the borrower to keep it, open that loan, tap ⋯, and choose Let them keep it — you cannot remove a copy that is still on loan.

Declining with Already lent to someone else doesn’t change anything about your copy — it stays available for other members to request, since the book comes back to you when that loan ends.

Reading a Shared Book

If you mark a shared book as Reading, or share a book you’re already reading, Agathos may ask: Don’t lend this copy while you read?

1. Choose Stop requests while I read — members stop seeing Borrow for this copy and can join the waitlist until you finish
2. Or choose Keep it requestable if you’re fine with loan requests while reading

The book stays shared with your libraries (this is different from turning sharing off, and different from account-wide Pause lending). When you mark it finished or paused, you may be asked Lend this copy again? — choose Allow requests or Not yet.

If someone requests the copy while you are reading it, you can decline with I’m reading this. That stops new requests for the copy the same way; members can join the waitlist.

You can also allow requests anytime from the book’s Your copy bar (Allow requests) while the copy is held for your reading.

Stopping Sharing

To remove a book from a library:

1. Open the book
2. Tap the Your copy bar, then Manage
3. Toggle off the library in the Sharing section

In-progress loans in that library continue until they’re returned. New requests stop.

Which one do you want?

• Reading it right now? Use the Don’t lend this copy while you read? prompt above — that’s temporary and only this copy.
• Travelling or too busy to lend anything? Pause lending in Settings instead; that covers every book at once.
• This particular copy is gone? Use Remove book. If someone already requested it, decline with Book is no longer available. If the copy is currently on loan and you want them to keep it, use Let them keep it from the loan’s ⋯ menu instead.

Tips

• Check your notification settings — You’ll want to know when someone requests your book
• Keep your availability updated — If you’re traveling, pause lending in Settings instead of unsharing books (unsharing may need admin approval again)
• Reading your own shared book — Use Stop requests while I read so members don’t request the copy you’re using
• Lost or gave a book away — Remove the book rather than leaving it listed, so members don’t keep asking for it

Related Articles

• Understanding book approval
• Adding books
• Removing books from your library (for library admins)

Still Need Help?

If you have questions about sharing books, contact support.