For collectors & dealers who take books seriously
Your first edition
Hemingway deserves
better than a spreadsheet.
Shelvd is professional library management for antiquarian books, rare editions, and fine bindings. Catalog with bibliographic precision. Track provenance. Know your library's value.
Built for people who know the difference between a first edition and a first printing.
31
Fields from a photo
Point. Shoot. Cataloged.
32
Library sources
27 countries · 5 continents
7
Export formats
Excel to SQLite — take your pick
69
MARC contributor roles
Author is just the beginning
Start cataloging for free — upgrade anytime
AI Book Scanning
Three photos.
Five seconds.
No typing whatsoever.
Photograph the cover, title page, and colophon. Claude reads the text — any language, any century, any typographic convention a printer ever dreamed up — and fills in title, author, publisher, year, edition, language, and twenty-five more fields.
Works on a 2024 Penguin paperback. Works on a 1776 leather-bound folio with a colophon in Latin. Works on that water-damaged Flemish prayer book you've been avoiding because the title page is in blackletter.
No ISBN required. No barcode required. No patience required.
AI Scan Result
31 fields extractedFor Collectors
For people who judge books
by their covers. Literally.
Whether you have fifty treasured volumes or five thousand, Shelvd gives you the tools to catalog, value, and understand your library the way a professional bibliographer would.
- Track condition, binding, format, paper type — not just title and author
- Full provenance chains: who owned it, where it came from, evidence and sources
- Real-time library valuation with multi-currency support
- Statistics dashboard: value trends, top authors, acquisition history
- Multiple collections: Library, Wishlist, or create your own
- AI Book Scanning: photograph a title page, get a complete catalog entry in seconds
- Upload photos: cover, spine, title page, details — drag to reorder, pinch to zoom
"I used to track everything in Excel. 2,300 rows. Three tabs. One formula error away from disaster."
— Every collector before Shelvd
Your books get the catalog entry they deserve:
Tolkien, J.R.R. (1892–1973)
The fellowship of the ring : being the first part of The Lord of the Rings / by J.R.R. Tolkien ; with a foreword by the author. — London : George Allen & Unwin, 1954. — 423 p. ; 22 cm.
Edition: First edition, first impression. — Binding: Original red cloth boards, gilt lettering to spine. — Dust jacket: First state, with “4 rings” design by the author.
Condition: Near fine; minor shelf wear to extremities. Dust jacket very good, price-clipped, with light toning to spine panel.
ISBN: — Language: English Format: Crown 8vo
Provenance: From the library of W.H. Auden (bookplate to front pastedown). Acquired at Christie’s London, 12 June 2019, Lot 142.
Books cataloged
4,712
Total inventory value
€283,400
Unrealized gain
+42%
Sold this year
187
Quick catalog export
For Dealers
Sell books.
Not your soul to Excel.
Professional inventory management with the bibliographic depth your stock demands. Generate ISBD catalog entries in multiple languages. Track provenance for discerning buyers. Know your margins.
- Provenance tracking with auction records, dealer catalogs, certificates
- Profit/loss tracking: acquisition cost vs. estimated value, per book and total
- Four ways in: scan a barcode, photograph the title page, drop a spreadsheet, or type it yourself if you enjoy that sort of thing
- 14-field advanced search across your entire inventory
Image Gallery
Photographs
A book catalog without photographs
is a spreadsheet with ambitions.
Upload from your phone or desktop — JPEG, PNG, WebP, even HEIC straight from your iPhone. Label each image: cover, spine, title page, binding detail, foxing close-up, that inscription you can't quite decipher.
Drag to reorder. Pinch to zoom. Swipe to browse. The cover becomes your thumbnail everywhere — list view, grid view, search results.
Your books had faces all along. Now your catalog does too.
We obsessed over the details.
So you can obsess over your books.
Cataloging & Description
Bibliographic Depth
76 book formats, 45+ cover types, 65 bindings, BISAC subject codes. Describe every physical detail.
ISBD Catalog Entries
Professional catalog entries in multiple languages. Roman numerals, circa dates, bibliographic pagination. Your local auction house will be impressed.
AI Book Scanning
Photograph a title page — a 2024 paperback or a 1543 Vesalius. AI reads the text and fills 31 fields. Five seconds. No typing. The future of cataloging arrived, and it's holding a phone.
Search & Organization
Advanced Search
14 searchable fields with AND/OR logic. Find every signed octavo in French published before 1850. In seconds.
Collections
Library, Wishlist, and unlimited custom collections. Organize by theme, room, project, or whim.
Custom Tags
Color-coded tags for any classification you need. 'Needs rebinding', 'Gift ideas', 'Do not sell under threat of death'.
Provenance & Value
Provenance Tracking
Visual timeline of every owner: person, institution, dealer, auction house. Evidence types, association copies, dedication copies. The whole story, beautifully told.
Valuation History
Full valuation timeline: appraisals, auction results, dealer quotes, insurance valuations — with provenance auto-sync and a value trend chart. Multi-currency with live ECB rates.
Statistics Dashboard
Total value, condition distribution, top publishers, acquisition trends by year. More charts than a stockbroker's office.
Data & Integration
Library Lookup
Thirty-two sources across twenty-seven countries. Library of Congress, BnF, DNB, K10plus, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the National Diet Library of Japan, and twenty-six more. One search. If a book exists and has a record, we'll probably find it.
Enrich Mode
Already cataloged? Search providers and merge new data field-by-field. Green for new, amber for different. You pick what stays.
Import & Export
Import from any spreadsheet — Excel, CSV, TSV — with automatic multilingual column detection. Export to Excel, CSV, JSON, XML, BibTeX, RIS, or a full SQLite database. Seven ways out. Because your data is yours and we have the receipts to prove it.
Tracking & History
Image Gallery
Upload photos from your phone, label them (cover, spine, foxing detail, that suspicious stain on page 47), drag to reorder. Pinch-to-zoom lightbox for the details that matter to buyers and insurers.
PDF Inserts
Vintage 3×5″ catalog cards and full catalog sheets in six paper sizes. Swiss typography meets library tradition. Print them, frame them, slip them into the book.
Activity Feed
Every edit, every enrichment, every import — tracked and browsable. A timeline per book, a feed for your whole library. Because provenance applies to data too.
Advanced Search
Advanced Search
Find the needle.
In your very organized haystack.
Fourteen searchable fields. Combine any of them. Find every signed octavo in French with a leather binding published before 1850. Or that book you vaguely remember buying in Brussels sometime around 2019.
Your library is only as useful as your ability to search it. We take that personally.
Not another book app.
Goodreads tracks what you've read. Shelvd catalogs what you own.
There's a difference. You know there is.
The problem
Manual cataloging takes forever. ISBN scanners only work on modern books.
Shelvd
Photograph the title page. Any century, any language, any eccentric 18th-century printer who couldn't spell his own name. AI fills 31 fields in five seconds. For modern books, sure, scan the barcode — we do that too.
The problem
Every app treats books as just 'title + author + cover'
Shelvd
76 formats, 45 cover types, 65 bindings, pagination, collation, paper type, edge gilding…
The problem
'Condition: Good' tells you nothing
Shelvd
Separate dust jacket condition, text block, detailed notes. Foxing, bumped corners, ownership marks — we speak your language.
The problem
Provenance? What provenance?
Shelvd
Visual timelines with evidence types, auction records, dealer catalogs, association copies. Because 'I got it at a flea market' is not a provenance chain.
The problem
Your library data is trapped in proprietary apps
Shelvd
Seven export formats including a full SQLite database — your complete library in a single file with relational tables intact. Open it, query it, back it up. We made it easy to leave because we're confident you won't.
The problem
No way to track how a book's value changes over time
Shelvd
Full valuation history with seven source types. Appraisals, auction results, dealer quotes — all in a timeline with a trend chart. Provenance prices flow in automatically.
The problem
CLZ and LibraryThing feel like they were designed in 2005
Shelvd
Because they were. Shelvd is built with modern tech, Swiss design principles, and an unreasonable amount of attention to typography.
The problem
No way to get books into the system without typing every field by hand
Shelvd
Four ways in: type it, scan a barcode, photograph the title page, or drop a spreadsheet in any of six languages. Shelvd auto-detects your columns. We've made data entry almost enjoyable. Almost.
Provenance Tracking
Every book has a story.
Now you can tell it.
Track the complete chain of custody: from monastery library to aristocratic collection to auction house to the dealer on that rainy Tuesday in Ghent to your shelf. With evidence, sources, and all 14 types of association.
Dedication copy? Presentation copy? Author's copy? Ex-library? We know the difference and so do you.
Provenance Timeline
Monastery of St. Gall
Monastery · c. 1490 – 1798
Dissolution of monasteries
Baron von Hügel
Person · 1802 – 1870
Purchased at auction, Zurich
Christie's, London
Auction House · 1871
Lot 247, £42
Current owner
Self · 2019 – present
Via Antiquariaat De Roo
Enrich Mode
Source: Library of CongressTitle
Publisher
Publication Year
Pagination
Language
Publication Place
Format
Enrich Mode
Already cataloged?
Make it better.
Search library databases and see exactly what’s new, what’s different, and what’s unchanged — field by field. Green for new data. Amber for conflicts. You decide what stays.
Like a diff tool for bibliographers. Except nobody asked for one. Until now.
Condition Tracking
“Condition: Good”
is not good enough.
Your book’s condition is more than a single word. Separate ratings for the text block and dust jacket. Detailed notes for everything that matters to a buyer, an insurer, or your future self wondering why you paid that much.
And because condition changes — a rebinding, a restoration, a decade of sunlight — there’s a full condition history timeline. Every event dated and described. Your book’s medical record.
Because “Good” can mean anything from “read once” to “survived a flood and three house moves.”
Condition Report
Other apps
That’s it. That’s the whole report.
Shelvd
Condition Notes
Spine lightly sunned. Minor foxing to prelims (pp. i–iv). Dust jacket price-clipped, with 2cm closed tear at head of spine panel, professionally repaired. Previous owner’s bookplate to front pastedown (armorial, unidentified). Hinges firm. Text block clean and bright.
Valuation Timeline
€1,200
Owner’s estimate at time of acquisition
€1,850
By: Van den Berg Antiquariaat
€2,400
Annual policy renewal
€950
From provenance — Christie’s, London
Valuation History
Every book has a price.
Now it has a price history.
Track how your book’s value changes over time. Professional appraisals, auction results, dealer quotes, insurance valuations — each entry dated, sourced, and attributed. When a provenance entry has a price, the valuation timeline picks it up automatically.
Seven source types. Trend chart when you have the data. Because a book’s value is a story, not a snapshot.
Simple pricing. No surprises.
Unlike that "mint condition" book with the hidden foxing on page 47.
Start free with Collector. Upgrade when you need more.
Collector
Free
For every book lover
- Up to 500 books
- Full cataloging (76+ fields)
- Collections & 20 custom tags
- Provenance & condition tracking
- Book Lookup (32 library sources)
- Library Enrich & barcode scanner
- Export (6 formats incl. BibTeX)
- External links & activity log
- 10 trial AI Scans
- 100 MB image storage
- Community support
Collector Pro
€9.99/mo
For serious collectors
- Everything in Collector
- Up to 5,000 books
- Unlimited tags
- 5 GB image uploads
- AI Book Scanning (10 scans/mo)
- PDF inserts (catalog card & sheet)
- Collection Audit
- Advanced statistics
- Billing history & payment management
- Standard support
Dealer
€49/mo
For professional dealers
- Everything in Collector Pro
- Unlimited books
- 25 GB image storage
- AI Book Scanning (50 scans/mo)
- Catalog generator (DOCX)
- Bulk operations
- Document storage (invoices, certs)
- Insurance & valuation reports
- Dealer directory listing
- Priority support (24h SLA)
- 30 min onboarding call
Marginalia — The Newsletter
We write about books.
Occasionally, we write about software.
New features, trade tips, and the odd literary digression. No spam, no schedule — just news when there's news. Roughly the frequency of a well-timed auction catalog.
Unsubscribe anytime. We respect your inbox
the way we respect a first edition.
Your books are waiting.
Don't leave them uncataloged.
They've survived centuries. The least you can do is give them a proper database entry.
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