LibraCore runs a real library: the desk, the catalogue, the members, the money,
and the public catalogue your readers search from their phones. It installs on
the shared hosting you already pay for, through a browser, in about fifteen
minutes — no SSH, no composer, no Node, no monthly fee.

Built for the libraries that get left out. Not the university with a systems
librarian, but the school with 4,000 books and one teacher in charge of them;
the public library with three branches and no IT department; the institute that
has been running on a spreadsheet for nine years and knows it.

Multi-branch, multi-language and multi-currency from the first screen, not as
paid add-ons. English, Sinhala and Tamil are included, and every member sees
the one they chose.

THE CIRCULATION DESK
- One screen for issuing and returning, built around a barcode scanner
- The member's loans, limit and balance visible throughout
- Refusals in plain words an assistant can read aloud — not loanable, at their
  limit, membership expired, someone is waiting
- Loan period is the stricter of the item type and the member category
- Due dates end the day, in the branch's own timezone
- Borrowing limits count across every branch
- Renewals, refused when somebody is waiting
- Every issue, return and renewal recorded against the staff member who did it

THE CATALOGUE
- Titles and copies kept properly apart — one work, many physical items
- Authors, publishers, subjects, categories, classification schemes
- Accession numbers, barcodes, shelf locations, condition, acquisition price
- Title, subtitle and summary in all three languages, with fallback
- Covers: upload your own, fetch real ones by ISBN, or let LibraCore draw one
- Search by title, author, subject, ISBN or classification

MEMBERS
- Categories with their own limits, loan periods and membership lengths
- Guardians for children's memberships
- Optional self-registration, with staff approval before borrowing
- Membership expiry, with warnings sent before it happens
- Photos, preferred language, full borrowing history

FINES AND PAYMENTS
- Daily rate by item type and member category, most specific rule winning
- Grace days forgiven entirely, and an optional maximum fine
- A fine is calculated at return and then frozen — it does not creep, and
  changing a rule does not rewrite last year
- Part payments, waivers recorded as waivers, printable receipts

HOLDS
- Reserve from the public catalogue or the desk
- A queue that moves: a returned copy is held for the next member and cannot be
  renewed away from them

LABELS AND MEMBERSHIP CARDS
- Barcode labels, spine labels and membership cards, printed from the browser
- Code 128 and Code 39, both generated by the system
- Four A4 sheet layouts, and a start position so a part-used sheet is finished
  rather than binned
- Warns before you print when a barcode will not fit the sheet at a readable
  size

NOTICES
- Due soon, overdue, hold ready, membership expiring
- Email and SMS, each in the member's own language
- Editable templates, a test button beside every setting, and a log of
  everything sent

THE PUBLIC CATALOGUE
- Search and browse with no login, on a phone
- Book pages with cover, summary, subjects and per-branch availability
- Member sign-in: what they have out, renewals, hold positions, what they owe
- Reserve online

REPORTS
Circulation by day, most borrowed, never borrowed, overdue, fines outstanding,
payments taken, member activity, stock summary — each by date range and branch,
each downloadable as CSV.

STOCK TAKE
Walk the shelves with a scanner, pause and resume, and see what is missing,
misplaced or unexpected before anything is written to the catalogue.

BUILT FOR SHARED HOSTING
No Node, no build step, no command line. A browser installer that checks your
server and names anything missing. Updates applied from the admin in one press.
Nothing calls home in order to work: if our licence server is unreachable, your
library is not.

REQUIREMENTS
PHP 8.2 or newer. MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.3+. Apache with mod_rewrite. About
250 MB of disk. Extensions: pdo_mysql, mbstring, openssl, tokenizer, xml,
ctype, json, fileinfo, curl, gd, zip, bcmath.

WHAT'S INCLUDED
Full PHP source. Installation guide, user guide and update guide. One year of
updates. Support for faults and questions. A licence for one domain.

Fifteen minutes, through a browser. No SSH, no composer, no build step.

WHAT YOU NEED
PHP 8.2 or newer, MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.3+, Apache with mod_rewrite, and
about 250 MB of disk. Any normal shared hosting plan. The installer checks all
of it on its first screen and names anything that is missing, so you do not
have to work it out in advance.

1. CREATE A DATABASE
In your hosting panel, create a database and a database user, and assign the
user to the database with all privileges. Keep the host, database name, user
and password.

2. UPLOAD
Upload the .zip into the folder your domain serves, and extract it there.
index.php, artisan, VERSION and the public folder should sit directly in that
folder — not inside a second folder.

3. PERMISSIONS
Set storage, storage/app, storage/framework, storage/logs and bootstrap/cache
to 775.

4. OPEN YOUR SITE
The installer takes over: requirements, licence key, database, administrator.
It closes itself permanently when it finishes.

Your base currency and timezone are asked during installation, because every
amount and every due date depends on them. Get those two right.

5. SIGN IN AT /admin
Set up your branches, item types, member categories and fine rules, then start
cataloguing. The user guide covers the order that saves the most work.

UPDATES
Upload the new release into the LibraCore folder with your file manager, then
press Update under Settings → System update. Your settings, uploads and data
are never touched.

FIRST-TIME SETUP, IN THE ORDER THAT SAVES THE MOST WORK

1. Settings → Branches — name your library, add more branches if you have them
2. Settings → Item types — loan period and borrow limit for books, reference,
   periodicals, DVDs, equipment
3. Members → Member categories — limits and membership length for adults,
   children, students, staff
4. Settings → Fine rules — daily rate, grace days, maximum. Skip it entirely if
   you do not charge fines
5. Catalog → Titles — add a book, then its copies
6. Settings → Notification settings — email, and SMS if you want it. Both have
   a test button beside the fields

DAILY OPERATION

Circulation → Circulation desk is where the day happens. Scan the member's
card, then scan each book. The member's loans, their limit and anything they
owe stay on screen throughout. Returning is the same screen, switched to
Return: the loan closes, any fine is calculated once and recorded, and if
somebody has reserved the title the copy is held for them rather than shelved.

Refusals are in plain words an assistant can read aloud — not loanable, at
their limit, membership expired, someone is waiting.

Catalog → Print labels prints barcode labels, spine labels and membership
cards. Print at 100%, never "fit to page".

Reports has eight reports, all exportable to Excel. Most borrowed and never
borrowed together are next year's acquisitions argument.

The full guide ships inside the download as USER-GUIDE.md, and covers every
screen, the fine rules in detail, stock take, multi-branch, and what to do when
something goes wrong.