Open-Source Integrated Library System License: GPL-3 | Languages: Italian, English
Pinakes is a self-hosted, full-featured ILS for schools, municipalities, and private collections. It focuses on automation, extensibility, and a usable public catalog without requiring a web team.
- Clone or download this repository and upload all files to the root directory of your server.
- Visit your site's root URL in the browser — the guided installer starts automatically.
- Provide database credentials (database must be empty).
- Select language (Italian or English).
- Configure organization name, logo, and email notifications.
- Create admin account and start cataloging.
Email configuration: Supports both PHP mail() and SMTP. Required for notifications to work (loan confirmations, due-date reminders, registration approvals, reservation alerts). Can be configured during installation or later from the admin panel.
All frontend assets are precompiled. Works on shared hosting. No Composer or build tools required on production. All configuration values can be changed later from the admin panel.
Pinakes comes from the ancient Greek word πίνακες ("tables" or "catalogues"). Callimachus of Cyrene compiled the Pinakes around 245 BC for the Library of Alexandria: 120 scrolls that indexed more than 120,000 works with authorship, subject and location. This project borrows that same mission—organising and sharing knowledge with modern tools.
Pinakes provides cataloging, circulation, a self-service public frontend, and REST APIs out of the box. It ships with precompiled frontend assets and a guided installer so you can deploy quickly on standard LAMP hosting.
- ISBN/EAN scraping from Google Books, Open Library, and pluggable sources
- Automatic cover retrieval when available
- Every field editable manually — automation never locks you in
- Multi-copy support with independent barcodes and statuses for each physical copy
- Unified records for physical books, eBooks, and audiobooks
- Dewey Decimal Classification preloaded (1,369 categories) with hierarchical browsing
- CSV bulk import with field mapping, validation, and automatic ISBN enrichment
- Automatic duplicate detection by ID, ISBN13, or EAN (updates existing records without modifying physical copies)
- Author and publisher management with dedicated profiles and bibliography views
- Genre/category system with custom taxonomies and multi-category assignment
- Series and collections tracking with sequential numbering
- Barcode generation for physical inventory (Code 128, EAN-13, custom formats)
- Cover image management with automatic download, manual upload, and URL import
- Rich metadata fields including edition, publication date, language, format, dimensions, weight, page count
- Keywords and tags for enhanced searchability and subject indexing
- Custom notes and annotations for internal cataloging remarks
- Full loan workflow: request, approval, checkout, renewal, return
- Automatic due-date calculation with configurable loan periods
- Configurable renewal rules (manual or automatic approval)
- FIFO reservation queues with availability alerts when items become free
- Detailed per-user and per-item history for audit trails
Automatic emails for:
- New user registration
- Registration approval
- Loan confirmation
- Approaching due dates (configurable days before)
- Overdue reminders
- Item-available notifications for reservations
WYSIWYG email template editor with dynamic tags for record, user, and loan data.
- Responsive, multilingual frontend (Italian + English)
- AJAX search with instant results and relevance ranking
- AJAX filters: genre, publisher, availability, publication year, format
- Patrons can leave reviews and ratings (configurable)
- Built-in SEO tooling: sitemap, clean URLs, Schema.org metadata tags
- Cookie-consent banner and privacy tools (GDPR-compliant)
- Hierarchical location model: shelf, aisle, position
- Automatic position assignment for new copies
- Barcode generation in standard formats
- Printable PDF labels in multiple sizes (customizable templates)
- eBook distribution (PDF, ePub) with download tracking
- Audiobook streaming (MP3, M4A, OGG) with integrated player
- Drag-and-drop upload or external URL linking
Extend without modifying core files. Plugins can implement:
- New metadata scrapers (custom APIs, proprietary databases)
- Additional business logic (custom loan rules, notifications)
- Digital-content modules (eBooks, audiobooks, streaming)
- Import/export routines (MARC21, UNIMARC, custom formats)
Plugins support encrypted secrets and isolated configuration. Install via ZIP upload in admin panel.
Pre-installed plugins (4 included):
- Open Library — Metadata scraping from Open Library + Google Books API
- Z39 Server — SRU 1.2 API for catalog interoperability (MARCXML, Dublin Core, MODS)
- API Book Scraper — External ISBN enrichment via custom APIs
- Digital Library — eBook (PDF, ePub) and audiobook (MP3, M4A, OGG) management with streaming player
Available as separate download:
- Scraping Pro — Advanced metadata scraping with configurable sources
- Homepage editor with drag-and-drop blocks (hero banner, featured shelves, events, testimonials)
- Custom pages (About, Regulations, Events) with WYSIWYG editing
- 10 color themes with instant switching (Sky Blue, Forest Green, Royal Purple, Sunset Orange, Cherry Red, Ocean Teal, Lavender Dreams, Midnight, Coral Sunset, Golden Hour)
- Custom theme editor with live preview for primary, secondary, and CTA colors
- Logo customization and branding
- Centralized media manager for images and documents
- Event management with dates, descriptions, and homepage display
- REST API for search, availability, cataloging, and statistics
- SRU implementation for Z39.50-style interoperability (union catalogs, interlibrary loan)
- CSV and Excel export for reports and backups
- PDF generation for labels, receipts, and reports
- Manual approval of new registrations (optional)
- Automatic card number assignment with customizable prefixes
- Complete per-user history of loans and reservations
- Self-service patron portal with loan renewal, reservation management, and wishlists
- Fast ISBN-driven cataloging cuts manual entry to seconds per book
- Usable public catalog without needing a web developer or custom theme work
- Extensible via plugins if you want custom scrapers, integrations, or business logic
- Self-hosted and GPL-3 licensed — full control, no vendor lock-in, no recurring fees
- Works on shared hosting — no root access, Docker, or build tools required on production
-
Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/fabiodalez-dev/pinakes.git cd pinakes -
(Optional) Refresh dependencies locally
composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader cd frontend && npm install && npm run build && cd ..
-
Fix writable directories — Git cannot store 0777 permissions:
./bin/setup-permissions.sh # or set 777 manually on uploads/, storage/, backups/, public/uploads/ -
Start a local server (or configure your vhost):
php -S 0.0.0.0:8000 router.php
-
Run the web installer — visit your domain. The installer walks through:
- Requirement checks (PHP extensions, directory permissions)
- Database credentials & connection test
- Schema + sample data import (Dewey, genres, email templates)
- Admin account creation
- App + email configuration
It writes
.envand.installedautomatically — no manual file editing needed. -
Post-install
- Remove/lock the
installer/directory (button provided on final step) - Configure SMTP, registration policy, and CMS blocks from Admin → Settings
- Schedule
php cron/automatic-notifications.php(daily) for automatic email reminders
- Remove/lock the
All plugins are located in storage/plugins/ and can be managed from Admin → Plugins.
- Metadata scraping from Open Library API
- Fallback to Google Books when Open Library lacks data
- Automatic cover download with validation
- Subject mapping and language normalization
- Configurable priority and caching options
- SRU 1.2 API for catalog interoperability
- Export formats: MARCXML, Dublin Core, MODS, OAI_DC
- CQL query parser for advanced searches
- Rate limiting and access logging
- Union catalog integration for interlibrary loan systems
- External API integration for ISBN enrichment
- Custom endpoint configuration (URL, headers, auth)
- Response mapping to Pinakes schema
- Retry logic with exponential backoff
- Error logging and debugging tools
- eBook support (PDF, ePub) with download tracking
- Audiobook streaming (MP3, M4A, OGG) with HTML5 player
- Per-item digital asset management (unlimited files per book)
- Access control (public, logged-in users only, specific roles)
- Usage statistics and download history
- Advanced metadata scraping with configurable sources
- Custom field mapping for proprietary databases
- Bulk enrichment for existing catalog
- Priority ordering for multiple sources
- Cache management to reduce API calls
Backend: Slim 4.13, PHP-DI, Slim PSR-7 + CSRF, Monolog 3, PHPMailer 6.10, TCPDF 6.10, Google reCAPTCHA, thepixeldeveloper/sitemap, emleons/sim-rating, vlucas/phpdotenv.
Frontend: Webpack 5, Tailwind CSS 3.4.18, Bootstrap 5.3.8, jQuery 3.7.1, DataTables 2.3.x, Chart.js 4.5, SweetAlert2 11, Flatpickr 4.6, Sortable.js 1.15, Choices.js 11, TinyMCE 8, Uppy 4, jsPDF, JSZip, Font Awesome, Inter font (self-hosted).
Works out of the box. Two .htaccess files handle routing:
- Root
.htaccess: Redirects to/public/or/installer/ public/.htaccess: Front controller routing, security headers, CORS
Copy .nginx.conf.example to your Nginx sites directory:
sudo cp .nginx.conf.example /etc/nginx/sites-available/pinakes
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/pinakes # Edit server_name, root, PHP-FPM
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/pinakes /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx📧 Email: pinakes@fabiodalez.it 🐛 Issues: GitHub Issues 💬 Discussions: GitHub Discussions
Contributions, issues, and feature requests are welcome via GitHub pull requests. Pinakes is released under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (see LICENSE).
If Pinakes helps your library, please ⭐ the repository!
app/Views/libri/partials/book_form.php– Catalog form logic, ISBN ingestionapp/Controllers/PrestitiController.php– Core lending workflowsapp/Controllers/ReservationsController.php– Queue handlingapp/Controllers/UserWishlistController.php– Wishlist UXapp/Views/frontend/catalog.php– Public catalog filtersapp/Controllers/SeoController.php– Sitemap + robots.txtstorage/plugins/– Plugin directory (all pre-installed plugins)