How to create book lists

Book lists are a great way to recommend several books to specific age groups all at once!

To create a new book list in Beanstack
To add books to a book list
To display a book list

To create a new book list in Beanstack:

1. Log in to the admin view of your site.
2. Go to Content > Book Lists.
3. Click “Create a Book List.”
4. Enter a title and short description to tell readers what to expect from this book list. 
5. Upload an optional book list/reading list banner image.
   • File names should not have any spaces.
   • The image should be at least 625 pixels wide and be in jpeg or jpg format.
6. Set the location of your book list for your site (recommended) or for another site (like within your catalog or your library’s web page).
7. Select relevant grade levels (hold down the ctrl/command or shift key to select multiple).
8. Select any relevant genres (hold down ctrl/command or shift key to select multiple).
9. Optional: Enter relevant, comma-separated keywords.
10. Click “Create.”

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To add books to a book list:

1. From the Book Lists dashboard, find the list you’d like to add books to. On it’s right, click the list icon to “Add/Remove Books.”
2. Click “Add a Book to This List.”
3. To add a book that is curated by Beanstack or that you have added before, use the “Curated Books” tab. Type in the corresponding title and author and then click “Search.”
   
   
   • If the correct book does not appear, click over to the “Web Search” tab. Type in the corresponding title and author or enter the ISBN and then click “Search.”
4. Click the accurate book cover and then click “OK” in the pop-up window.
5. Continue adding as many books as you’d like! 

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To display a book list:

1. From the Book Lists dashboard, all lists set to display will appear under the “Showing” tab.
2. Click over to the “Created by” Us tab to see all lists you have created, including those that are not yet set to display.
3. Click the empty checkbox next to the desired list title to display the list. 

Now, this list will be displayed on the readers’ “Recommendations” tab within their dashboard. On the web, readers in a list’s suggested grade levels will see that list first, but always have the option to click View All and see all book lists for all grade levels.

Note: The mobile app currently does not support the Wish List and Recommendations features.

Book lists are always filtered by grade, even if your site doesn’t collect grade information. Without grade information, our system assumes that:

• Ages 0–2 are babies and toddlers.
• Ages 3–4 are pre-K.
• Age 5 is kindergarten.
• Ages 6–17 are grades 1–12, respectively.
• Ages 18 and above are adult.

Book lists can be based on one or more genres if you desire, and can also feature keywords. Instructions to link to an existing list on a separate site can be found here.

A few notes for libraries:

• If your catalog has been integrated with your Beanstack site as part of our Premium service level, all of these books will automatically link directly to your library’s catalog. Keep in mind that it can take some time for any missing book covers to populate. If books covers are still missing or appearing incorrectly after a few days, please open a ticket and include the book title and correct book cover art image, if possible.
• Be very careful when entering titles and authors so they appear as they do within your library catalog. Do not add a series like “Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series.” Rather, add specific books within a series and their authors.

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