Library software · self-serve

Your library. Your books.

Anywhere in the world.

DITA Platform gives any organisation its own digital library — catalog, readers, lending, apps, all under your own name. Bring the titles you already own or license. We handle everything around them.

Create your library →Talk to us →

Free up to 50 readers, then from $29 a month · no card · no sales call · runs in any browser · iOS, Android and desktop apps

books.stmartins-hospital.org

St Martin's Library

BrowseMy BooksCollections

1,284 titlesYour branding · your domain

Illustration — a customer library on its own domain

What this is

Every organisation with books has the same problem and no software that fits it. DITA Platform is the layer underneath — your catalog, your readers, your rules — without building any of it yourself.

How it works

Three steps to a working library.

Most organisations are lending the same afternoon. There is no server to run, no software to install, and nothing for your readers to download unless they want the app.

Create your organisation

Sign up with a work email, name your library, pick a type. You get an admin account and an empty catalog on your own subdomain — or your own domain.

Load your catalog

Upload EPUB, PDF and audio, import a spreadsheet or MARC records, or pull in free public-domain and open-access titles in one click. Metadata is cleaned up for you.

Invite your readers

Send a link, import a member list, or connect your existing sign-in. Readers borrow, hold and read on the web, on mobile, or offline — under your name, not ours.

Who it's for

Built for the libraries nobody builds for.

Big public library systems have vendors. Everyone else has a spreadsheet, a shelf of donated paperbacks, and no budget for either. That is who this is for.

Health

Hospital & clinic libraries

Patient and family reading at the bedside, plus a clinical reference shelf for staff. Works on unit tablets and personal phones.

See how it works →Community

Community & ad-hoc libraries

Neighbourhood collections, refugee and diaspora libraries, book clubs, little free libraries that outgrew the box.

See how it works →Education

Small private & charter schools

A class library, reading assignments and progress, without a district-scale contract or an IT department.

See how it works →Faith

Churches, mosques & faith organisations

Congregation lending, study material, and collections in the languages your community actually reads in.

See how it works →Secure settings

Closed and secure environments

Reading where the internet isn't open — controlled, offline-capable, on managed devices, with a catalog your staff approve title by title.

See how it works →Corporate

Corporate & research libraries

Internal manuals, licensed reference works and training material in one place, with access by team.

See how it works →Heritage

Museums & archives

Publish digitised holdings and scholarly editions to the public — or to approved researchers only.

See how it works →Public

Small public libraries

A digital branch for towns that can't carry a six-figure platform contract, alongside whatever you already license.

See how it works →Field

NGOs & aid organisations

Multilingual reading for camps, clinics and field programmes — designed to work on bad connections and old devices.

See how it works →

Personal collectors and single-shelf libraries are welcome too — the smallest plan is one person and one catalog.

Your catalog

Bring your own books. We'll fill the gaps.

The catalog is yours. Whatever you own, license, digitise or write goes in, and it stays yours if you ever leave.

Upload what you have. EPUB, PDF, audio, comics and plain scans. We convert, clean and generate covers where they're missing.
Import your records. CSV, ONIX or MARC from an existing catalog, so you don't retype three thousand titles.
Start stocked, not empty. Add open collections we've already ingested — Standard Ebooks and the Open Textbook Library — and ask us for sources we don't carry yet. If the licence allows it, we ingest it once and every library gets it.
Add your own writing. Institutional publications, local authors, manuals and study guides, produced into proper ebooks.
Keep your licences. Titles you license directly from a publisher sit on the same shelf, under the terms you agreed.

What readers get

A reading app, not a download page.

Readers borrow and read in place. No email attachments, no shared drive, no PDF that ends up on someone's desktop forever.

Read anywhere. The browser, or the DITA app on iOS, Android and desktop — position, bookmarks and notes follow the reader across devices.
Offline by default. Borrowed titles work on a plane, on a hospital unit, in a cell block, in a village with no signal.
Real lending. Loans, returns and renewals — the behaviour readers already understand from a library.
Accessible. Reflowable text, adjustable type and spacing, dyslexia-friendly settings, screen-reader support and read-along audio.
Any language. Full right-to-left support and interface translations, so the library reads the way your community does.

White label

It carries your name, not ours.

Readers see your library. Your logo, your colours, your domain, your terms of use. DITA appears in the small print and nowhere else.

St Martin's Hospital Library

books.stmartins-hospital.org

Patient reading and a clinical reference shelf, split by role.

Riverside Community Books

riverside.ditaplatform.com

A neighbourhood collection run by three volunteers.

Halden Academy Library

library.haldenacademy.edu

Class reading lists, assignments and progress for 340 students.

See the whole reader, branded →How a reader joins →

Illustrations, not customers. White labelling is on every plan, including the free one. Readers use the DITA app on iOS, Android and desktop — they pick your library inside it and it takes on your branding. Custom domains and your own sign-in are on the roadmap after launch. An app published under your own name in the app stores is built to order.

Security & compliance

Serious about the boring parts.

You are handling copyrighted files, and often minors' data. Both of those have rules, and the platform is built around them rather than bolted on afterwards.

Content protection

Open-standard LCP encryption on every protected title. Publishers get terms they recognise; readers get no clunky DRM app.

Data protection

GDPR-aligned by design, with data export and deletion built in. Regional hosting where you need it.

Children & schools

Guardian consent, age-banded catalogs and separate child accounts, for organisations serving under-13s.

Accessibility

WCAG-aligned reader and admin interfaces, keyboard-navigable, tested with screen readers.

Questions

The things people ask first.

Do you supply the books?

Not commercial bestsellers. We supply the open collections we've ingested, and we produce and protect anything you own or license yourself. If you want current commercial titles, you license them from the publisher and we host them under those terms.

What does it cost?

Free up to fifty readers, and small libraries can stay free. Paid plans start at $29 a month and depend on how many readers you serve, plus options like apps and hosting region (custom domains and your own sign-in are on the roadmap after launch). Small community and personal libraries are the cheapest case by a wide margin. Tell us your size and we'll give you a number.

Are we locked in?

No. Your own files were always yours. What you build here — catalogue records, collections, your reader list and loan history — exports in open formats at any time, so leaving costs you nothing but the move.

How long does setup take?

An afternoon for a small library loading its own files. Longer if you're migrating records from an existing system or need custom sign-in — we do that migration with you.

Do our readers need an app?

No. Everything works in a browser, including offline reading. The apps exist for people who prefer them and for managed devices.

Who is behind this?

DITA has built digital reading platforms since 2015 — for OCLC's cloudLibrary, bibliotheca, Queens Library, Storytel, Bokbasen, eKitabu and the UNODC among others. Our founder led mobile development at the New York Public Library and shipped SimplyE and Open eBooks, served on the Readium Foundation board, and has been an LCP expert at EDRLab since 2020. More about DITA.

Let's talk

Tell us what you're trying to lend.

Start it yourself — signed up and branded in about fifteen minutes, lending the same afternoon. Larger organisations still set up the same way; we just help you do it.

Create your library →See pricing →