How it works

1. 1Scan the barcode in the shop.
2. 2Verso checks every shelf you share.
3. 3Buy only what’s genuinely new.

In detail

The heart of it is cross-shelf duplicate detection. The moment you scan an ISBN, Verso checks not just your own shelf but every library you or your family share — so you instantly see whether the book already sits somewhere in your collection before buying it twice. Metadata (title, author, cover) comes from Open Library, a non-profit — not Google or Amazon. The scan itself runs entirely in your browser; no camera image is ever uploaded. Without an account, everything stays on your device (localStorage). Sign in and your shelves are backed up and synced across devices. Families and flatmates share the same inventory, while reading status, progress and ratings stay personal to each member. Co-owners can curate the shelf; guests can view the inventory and keep their own reading history. No barcode handy? You can add books manually, put them on a wishlist, and track who you've lent them to. Borrowed books can be read and rated without adding them to the shared inventory. Even after a book is sold or returned, your reading history remains. As an installable PWA, all of it works offline too.