Understanding Member Roles

Every library has three roles: Owner, Admin, and Member. Your role controls what you can change in the library—not whether you can borrow or share books.

Role comparison

Permission	Owner	Admin	Member
Browse and borrow books	✓	✓	✓
Share personal books with library	✓	✓	✓
Join reading plans	✓	✓	✓
Approve/reject join requests	✓	✓	—
Approve/reject book submissions	✓	✓	—
Add library-owned books	✓	✓	—
Create reading plans	✓	✓	—
Feature books	✓	✓	—
Remove regular members	✓	✓	—
Promote/demote admins	✓	—	—
Day-to-day library settings (name, location, lending, submissions, pickup spots)	✓	✓	—
Plan, billing, features, transfer ownership, delete library	✓	—	—

Owner

The owner created the library. There is exactly one owner.

Owner capabilities:

Everything admins and members can do
Promote members to admin or demote admins back to member
Transfer ownership to any member (Manage → Settings → Advanced → Transfer ownership; non-admins are promoted to admin automatically)
Delete the library

Important: The owner cannot leave the library or be removed. To step back, transfer ownership in Settings → Advanced (you remain an admin), or delete the library if it is no longer needed.

Transferring a library with a paid subscription: the subscription stays billed to your payment method until the new owner takes over billing under Plan & billing (they’ll see a Take over billing prompt, and both of you get a reminder every 7 days until it’s done). Until then you keep access to Manage Subscription — so you can still update your card, view invoices, or cancel — and plan changes are paused for everyone. If you later leave the library while it’s still billed to you, you can reach Manage subscription any time from your account Settings under Subscriptions billed to you. If you’d rather stop paying before handing the library over, cancel the subscription first; note the library may lose grandfathered pricing and will move to Free limits when the cancellation takes effect.

Admin

Admins handle day-to-day library work. Many large libraries use several admins.

Admin capabilities:

Approve or reject join requests
Review and approve book submissions from members
Add and remove books from the library collection
Create and manage reading plans
Feature books for the community
Remove regular members from the library
Change day-to-day settings: name, description, location, lending rules, submission workflow, pickup spots
Everything members can do

Admins cannot:

Promote or demote other admins (owner only)
Remove the owner or another admin
Change plan, billing, or feature modules
Transfer ownership or delete the library

Member

Members are everyone else in the library.

Member capabilities:

Browse and borrow books
Share personal books with the library (may need approval—see below)
Join reading plans
Recommend books

Book sharing: Whether a member’s shared book appears right away depends on your library’s submission workflow. Admins’ and owners’ shared books are always approved automatically. You can also mark specific members as Trusted on the People tab so their submissions skip the queue when auto-approval is enabled.

How roles work with book ownership

Library-owned books

Belong to the library (like a traditional collection)
Only owners and admins can add them
Library-owned books can be on shelf (grab-and-go checkout) or staff retrieves (a volunteer sets the book out) — see lending rules under Library Settings and per-book Fulfillment on Inventory

Member-owned books

Personal books a member chooses to share
Any member can share their books
The person who shared the book approves each loan request

Your role affects whether your shared books need review—not whether you approve loans on books someone else shared.

Tips

Start with a few admins—add more as the library grows
Pick active admins—they should respond to requests and submissions promptly

Still Need Help?

If you have questions about roles and permissions, contact support.