Hi Code4Lib,
I'm Fabio D'Alessandro, an independent developer in Italy. I'd like to
introduce Pinakes, a self-hosted, GPL-3.0 library management system aimed
at small and community libraries and specialist collections.
The aim is to bring day-to-day library work and a usable public catalogue
together in something that can run on ordinary PHP hosting. It uses PHP
8.2+ and MySQL/MariaDB; the release package includes its dependencies and
compiled assets.
A few parts that may be relevant to this community:
- Cataloguing, physical copies, circulation, reservations and reader
accounts.
- Periodicals and article-level records, contributor roles, wanted books
and donation workflows.
- PDF and audiobook attachments, a self-hosted PDF reader, and a companion
Android app.
- A plugin system, with MARC/MARCXML tools, OAI-PMH, SRU and linked-data
exports.
The current web release is 0.8.4. I'm looking for feedback and
contributors, particularly around metadata exchange and round-tripping,
cataloguing workflows, accessibility and practical deployment in small
libraries. I'd also be glad to hear where Pinakes overlaps with existing
projects and where collaboration would be useful.
Source and issues: https://github.com/fabiodalez-dev/Pinakes
Public demo: https://biblioteca.fabiodalez.it/
Documentation: https://fabiodalez-dev.github.io/Pinakes/
Android app: https://github.com/fabiodalez-dev/Pinakes-Android
The demo uses real bibliographic records; its holdings and activities are
illustrative. No login is needed to explore the public catalogue.
What would you test first when evaluating a project like this for a small
library? Bug reports, metadata examples and candid criticism are all
welcome.
Thanks for taking a look,
Fabio D'Alessandro
https://fabiodalez.it/
Received on Wed Oct 14 2026 - 04:49:01 EDT