Q: What are shelves for?
A: Your shelves gather in one place all the titles that you have read, watched or listened to (Completed), are currently enjoying (In Progress) or would like to borrow in the future (For Later). Items are added to your Completed shelf automatically whenever you add a rating, comment or other type of content. You can also add titles manually to any shelf by clicking the shelf name next to the title on your search results, by clicking the shelf name from a title’s details page, or by clicking Add Title on the shelf itself.
Q: Why are things automatically saved to my Completed shelf?
A: Titles are saved to your Completed shelf when you rate, tag or add comments to them. It’s designed to provide a snapshot of you and your interests, a gathering together of titles on which you’ve offered an opinion. Although you can add titles manually, adding them automatically saves you time.
Q: How do I add things to my shelves?
A: On any of your shelves, click the Add Title button, and then search for the title you want to add. In search results, and from a title’s details page, look for the button with the shelf name to add the title to that shelf.
Q: Can I add books I own and have at home?
A: Of course. If the title is in your library’s catalog, you can add it. If you wish, you can use the Edit Details sidebar to mark items you own.
Q: If I already have a list of books in other places (for example, GoodReads, LibraryThing), can I import them here?
A: Not at the moment. We hope to add that feature in the future.
Q: Can other people see what’s on my shelves?
A: Yes. However, if you would prefer that others not see a specific title on your shelves, you can mark the item as private. When another member views your shelf, the title will not be visible. The entries that are left in public view will be available to other users in your library, in other libraries, and on the World Wide Web. You can also specify a default privacy setting for each of your Completed, In Progress and For Later shelves.
Your shelves will be set to private by default, unless you choose to change this in the settings.
To change the shelf privacy setting, log in to your account, and then click My Settings on the menu. Look for the Privacy section.
Q: What is the relationship between my privacy settings and the content I contribute, like comments and tags?
A: By default, your shelves are shared and any content you add (for example, a comment) are shared with the community. If you mark an item as private, or if you have changed your shelf settings to private, the content you contribute is not shared. To change the shelf privacy setting, log in to your account, and then click My Settings on the menu. Look for the Privacy section.
If you want to mark one item as private, go to the shelf, click the Add Details link next to the item, and then click Keep this item private. For more details, see Excluding a Title from Shared View.
Q: How do I move something from one shelf to another? I had a movie on my For Later shelf, I borrowed it, and now I want to put in on my Completed shelf.
A: It’s easy to move from one shelf to another. Just go to the shelf containing the item you want to move. Next to the item, click Move to my… and then click the new shelf.
Q: What happens if the library discards an item I have on my shelf?
A: Any item you add to one of your shelves remains there until you remove it, even if the library no longer owns the title.