Manual

A walkthrough of The Diodati Debtors, in the order you'll actually encounter things — starting with the links on your Dashboard, then the four tabs that hold your books and loans.

Register an account, then confirm your email address via the link we send you — after that, your Personal Library works right away, with no club required.

Add a Book

Add a book via ISBN lookup, title search (with cover previews), or entirely by hand. Set its Borrowing Visibility to control whether it's only visible within your club, or open to public borrowing enquiries from anyone on the platform.

Import Books

Already have a spreadsheet of your books? Upload a CSV, XLSX, or ODS file — the columns are detected for you, likely duplicates are flagged for review, and you'll see exactly what was added or skipped once it's done.

Clubs

Found a club, or browse and request to join an existing one. A club gives every member a shared Common Club Library — every book owned by any of its members.

My Bookmates

Club Members and personal Contacts, side by side. Contacts are people without an account — a neighbour, a family member — who you lend to and manage directly, with no request needed.

Invite a friend by email — they'll get a link straight into your club, with their account already confirmed, no separate verification step needed.

My Profile

Entirely optional: a display name, location, bio, and favourite genre, with one visibility setting for the whole thing — private, visible to fellow club members, or public.

Organise

"What needs my attention?" — pending club-join and loan requests to decide on, open Borrowing Inquiries waiting on your reply, plus Your Requests: what you've sent, and the status of each.

Communication

A hub with three doors: Personal Messages (a WhatsApp-style overview of your ongoing conversations with fellow club members), Club Feed, and Global Board. Every book also has its own Discussion, Reviews, and Synopsis (written manually, imported from Open Library, or AI-generated).

Ask the Librarian

Describe what you're looking for in your own words — a mood, a theme, a half-remembered detail, or a specific title or author. The librarian checks your library's records first, then its meaning, and will suggest something from beyond it if nothing fits — verified against real sources before it's ever shown. If a match exists in a club you haven't joined, and its owner has opened it up to public enquiries, you can request to borrow it directly, no membership required.

The Dashboard Tabs

Personal Library — your own books, always visible, no club required.

Common Club Library — every book owned by any member of your currently selected club (switch clubs from the dropdown above the tabs).

My Borrowed Books — what you currently have on loan, plus a link to your full Borrow History.

My Lent-Out Books — books you own that are currently out with someone else, plus a link to your Lent-Out History, grouped by book.

Trust Signals

Reliability and Book Care are shown wherever they help you decide who to lend to — always as plain words (Excellent, Good, ...), never as scores or rankings. Only visible in contexts where they're actually relevant, such as a shared club.

Illustrations from Manual of the System of the British and Foreign School Society of London, London, 1816 — the same year as Villa Diodati.