Plugin / Library Bookshelves

Description

The Library Bookshelves plugin allows you to curate virtual bookshelves just like you would a shelf around a theme in your library. Bookshelves are displayed as customizable Slick carousels, using cover art from, and links to, your library catalog. The plugin creates a Bookshelves post type, shortcode, widget, and custom taxonomy.

This plugin currently supports BiblioCommons, Calibre, EBSCOHost Discovery Service, Evergreen, Innovative Encore and WebPAC PRO, Koha, OpenLibrary.org, Polaris, SirsiDynix Enterprise and Horizon, and TLC catalogs. It supports retrieval of images from these third-party CDNs: Amazon, ChiliFresh, Baker & Taylor, EBSCO, OpenLibrary.org, Syndetics, and TLC. Bookshelves can be populated using SirsiDynix Symphony Web Service and Sierra APIs. When using an API you can set a Bookshelf to update items on a regular schedule using the built-in WordPress cron system.

If you would like this plugin to support another catalog system, CDN, or web service email me.

Originally developed by and for staff at the Guilderland Public Library.

Thanks to Gregory Testa of Chesapeake Public Library for feature suggestions and code contributions.

We want to know where our plugin is being used and how you’re using it! Don’t worry, we’re not going to use any tracking code to find out. If you are one of the many libraries using this plugin drop us a line and say “Hi!”

Configuration

1. Go to Bookshelves>Settings to configure the plugin.
2. On the Catalog tab enter the domain name of your catalog (default is OpenLibrary.org).
3. Select your catalog system and image CDN.
   • ChiliFresh users will need to add their website domain to “Covered hosts” in the ChiliFresh Admin Panel for images to display.
   • TLC users will need to enter a Customer ID which can be found in your catalog’s item cover art URLs.
4. On the Slider Settings tab you can customize bookshelf behavior. Defaults have been set to get you started.
5. On the CSS Settings tab you can customize some Bookshelf element styles.

Getting Started

Create a new Bookshelf using ISBNs or UPCs from items in your catalog. You can input items manually, from an exported list, or from a web service API. Paste the Bookshelf shortcode into a post or page, or use the Bookshelf widget. Add location tags to your Bookshelves to display them in the widget or just to keep them organized. The widget can organize Bookshelves in tabs, and will sort Bookshelves by the Order attribute.

EBSCOHost users must enter Accession Numbers, and Calibre users must enter book ID numbers instead of ISBNs or UPCs.

Known Issues

There is a known issue using the Bookshelves widget in tabbed mode and the Ultimate Addons for Visual Composer plugin.