Libraries and access modes
A library is a collection of carriers within an organization, and the access mode controls whether caregiver and loan data is shared across all libraries or kept separate per library. Every organization has one access mode that applies to all of its libraries.
Libraries
A library is where inventory and lending happen. An organization can run several — for example one per physical location. Each library has:
- Its own carriers
- Its own loans, reservations, and waitlists
- Its own default loan length
- Library types that describe how it’s used: Loan-enabled, Education only, and Giveaway-enabled. These aren’t mutually exclusive — a library can be more than one.
Carriers belong to a library, but caregivers are shared across the whole organization. The same caregiver can borrow from more than one library without being entered twice.
Access modes
The access mode is an organization-wide setting that controls read visibility of caregivers and loan history. It never changes where routes live or grants write access — writing always requires a direct library assignment.
Org-wide (default)
Any org member can read caregivers and loan history across every library. This is the simplest setup for a single-location library or a team that trusts everyone with the full picture. Write access still requires a library assignment.
Per-library
Library Owners and Users see only the libraries they’re assigned to. A caregiver is visible to them only if the caregiver is tied to a library they can access — meaning the caregiver has a loan, reservation, or waitlist entry in that library — or if that user created the record. Org Admins always see everything, regardless of mode.
Even in per-library mode, a minimal identity search stays available org-wide so check-out can find or create a caregiver without entering duplicates. Contact details are withheld for caregivers a user isn’t tied to.
Choosing a mode
Start org-wide if your team is small or single-location and everyone should see everything. Choose per-library when separate locations or groups should only see their own caregivers and loans. An Org Admin can change the mode later in organization settings.