Creating a library

Starting a library is one of the most rewarding things you can do on Agathos Books — you’re opening a space for your church, school, or community group to share books with one another. It’s also genuinely quick: most people are up and running in minutes.

If you signed up with a phone number, confirm the email you entered before you finish creating the library — we need it for member notifications and billing. We’ll prompt you on the last step if you haven’t confirmed yet.

This guide walks through the Create a new library wizard step by step so you know exactly what to expect.

Should You Create a Library?

If your church, school, or group already has a library on Agathos Books, join it as a member instead — you’ll be able to add and share your own books as a member of someone else’s library.

Create a new library when you’re the person starting one for a group that doesn’t have one yet. Only one person per community needs to do this — and it doesn’t have to be the leader. If you’re not, start it anyway: you can transfer ownership to a pastor, teacher, or group leader whenever you’re ready (Manage → Settings → Advanced → Transfer ownership).

Just want to keep track of your own books? You don’t need to create a library for that — add them to My Books, and share them with your library once you join one.

Starting the Wizard

There are two ways to start the process:

• First-time users: On the welcome screen right after you sign up, choose I’m setting up a library for my church, school, or group.
• No invite link? On the Join a library screen, choose Set up your community’s library yourself under No invite yet?.
• Existing users: From your Home screen, choose Create a library — you’ll also find it in the + quick actions.

You’ll land on a page titled Create a new library with a progress bar at the top. Your answers save automatically as you go, so it’s safe to close the tab and come back later.

Step 1: Choose a Library Type

Pick the option that best describes your group.

Type	Best For
Church	Congregations, places of worship
School	Schools, homeschool co-ops
Community	Christian book clubs, Bible studies, small groups, ministries, families

Every type goes through the same five steps. Your choice sets the sample names, the starter collections, and the icon members see until you add a logo. It does not change lending rules or other settings. Sharing among family or friends? Choose Community. You can read more in Library types and visibility.

Step 2: Name Your Library

Give your library a clear name people will recognize. A name like “Oakhaven Community Fellowship Library” or “Grace Christian School Library” works far better than something generic like “My Library.”

You can also add a short description here, but it’s optional — you can also change it later from your library settings.

Step 3: Add a Location

Set where the library is physically located (or your primary pickup spot for book transfers). Start by choosing your country — it’s detected automatically, but you can change it.

How you set the location adapts to what’s available in your area:

• Search for an address. Where street-level maps are available, enter your postal code (in your country’s format — e.g. 12345 in the US, SW1A 1AA in the UK) and start typing the street address to pick it from the list.
• Drop a pin. Everywhere else, search for your city or area and drag the map pin to the exact spot — or tap Use my current location to set it from your device.

Either way you’ll see the location pinned on a map to confirm. The location gives members helpful context — they see how far away the library is, in their local units (miles or kilometres) — and anchors pickup coordination. It’s never used to make your library findable.

Your exact location is never shown publicly — only the city and an approximate distance.

Every library needs a location before it can be created — a street address, or a pin on the map where street addresses aren’t available. It sets the timezone for due dates and anchors pickup coordination. You can update it later from Manage → Settings → Location.

Step 4: Set Up a Pickup Spot

A pickup spot is the place where members drop off and pick up books — for example, “Welcome desk” or “Book cart in the foyer.” Every library needs at least one so that loans have a clear handoff location.

You’ll be asked for:

• Spot name (required) — keep it short and recognizable
• Description (optional) — a sentence to help first-time members find it (“Bookshelf to the left of the welcome desk”)
• Photo (optional on this first spot) — a square picture of where the books sit

You can create the library with a spot name and no photo. After the library exists, Add a photo of the pickup spot stays open on your setup tasks until a photo is saved. Editing that spot, or adding another one, requires a photo before you can save. You can rename the spot anytime from Manage → Settings → Pickup spots.

Step 5: Review and Create

The final step shows everything you’ve entered. Look it over, then tap the big Create library button at the bottom.

That’s it — your library is live! You’ll see a confirmation, then land on your new library page, ready for the next steps.

What Happens After You Create It

The moment your library is live you’ll land on your new library page and see a short celebration with a preview of your setup checklist. You can take a quick tour of the library page (your library’s identity area and the Manage button) or skip straight in — either way, the checklist preview shows what’s next.

If you already have books in My Books, we’ll ask next whether you want to share them with the library you just created. Share all opens Manage sharing with the confirm ready. Not now hides that question for the rest of this visit; the next time you open the library, we ask again. The setup checklist keeps Share books you already own until you share a book or tap Skip on that row. Skipping the row, or hiding the whole checklist, stops the question. See Sharing books with a library.

When you open Manage for the first time, a second short tour on the admin dashboard points you to Settings and the full checklist card.

Every library on Agathos Books is invite-only — it can’t be searched for or discovered, and only the people you share access with can see or join it. That means you can take your time setting things up: nobody sees your library until you share an invite link from Manage → Promote. See Promoting your library for the two kinds of links (request-to-join and instant-join) and email invitations.

Pickup reminders follow the Pickup days you set under Manage → Settings → Lending rules (Sunday through Saturday). A library that is open on Wednesday is reminded on Wednesday, not on Sunday because it is a church. Leave every day off if your pickup days vary — reminders then follow the clock.

The persistent setup checklist lives on your admin dashboard (tap Manage on your library page). It tracks four things:

1. Add a cover image and logo
2. Add your first book — or Share books you already own, if you already have books in My Books
3. Invite your first member
4. Review your library settings (submission workflow, lending rules, location)

Each item checks off automatically as you do the action — there’s nothing to mark by hand. If the first pickup spot has no photo yet, Add a photo of the pickup spot stays under Needs attention on the dashboard until you save one. The card sticks around until everything is complete, or you can dismiss the four checklist items from the card itself — the photo task (and a missing location or spot) stays until the missing piece is in place. If you leave and come back later, the home page may show a compact reminder that links you back to the dashboard checklist. The Setting up your library article walks through each item in detail.

Tips

• The wizard saves your progress automatically. If you close it partway through, you’ll pick up right where you left off the next time you start it. (The post-creation setup checklist is separate — open Manage on your library to find it on the admin dashboard.)
• Start small. You don’t need a full collection or a long member list on day one. Add a handful of favorite books, invite one or two trusted people, and grow from there.
• Use the welcome page placeholders. The wizard shows sample names and descriptions tailored to your library type — they’re a useful starting point if you’re stuck.

Related Articles

• Setting up your library
• Library types and visibility

Still Need Help?

If you run into trouble during library creation, contact support and we’ll get you sorted out.