Guides

Practical, plain-English help for the library of one.

Short, honest walk-throughs for solo and small-library staff — written from the desk, not the manual.

How to Find a Dewey Number Without OCLC

Three free methods for getting Dewey Decimal numbers when your library isn’t an OCLC member: open records, title/author search, and classifying by analogy.

~6 min read

Setting Up Koha: A Free Library System You Can Run Yourself

A staged, newbie-friendly tour of standing up Koha, the free and open-source library system — even if you’ve never touched a server. The secret: you don’t do it alone.

~12 min read

How I Use AI in a One-Person Library

Everyday ways a solo librarian leans on an AI assistant — turning a photo of a book into catalog text, building learning tools for students, and the prompt habits that make it work.

~7 min read

Take a Module and Make It Yours

Download any learning module, customize it with an AI assistant, and put your own version online for students — free, no coding, with a full GitHub Pages walkthrough.

~8 min read