How Lyra works

Lyra is an integrated library system (ILS) which provides one interface for library staff and another for patrons. If you’ve used another ILS, this will feel familiar, and the term mapping can help you understand subtle differences.

Two apps over one catalog

Lyra is really two applications sharing one database:

• The staff app is where library staff works — check out and check in, catalog items, manage patrons, and set policies.
• The OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog) is the patron-facing side — it’s your library’s website, a catalog where patrons search, browse lists, and place holds.

Both are web-based and mobile-responsive, so there’s nothing to install on a phone or tablet.

Everything in Lyra nests inside an account, the top-level container that carries your subscription. An account holds one or more schools, each school holds one or more libraries, and each library owns its own items, copies, and policies. Patrons are shared across the school, so a single patron can borrow from any library in it.

Core concepts

AccountsThe top-level container that carries your subscription and holds one or more schools. Where billing and account ownership are decided.ReadSchoolsThe level inside an account that owns what's shared across its libraries — the patron roster, homerooms, the calendar, staff, and branding.ReadLibrariesThe building, room, or bookshelf. Each library owns its own items, copies, and policies, inside the school that contains it.ReadItemsThe catalog record for a thing you carry, and the barcoded copies of it on the shelf. One item record covers all copies of a title within a library.ReadLoansA checked-out copy tied to a patron, with a due date. Moves from active through renewed to returned or lost, and is kept as history once it ends.ReadHoldsA patron's request for the next available copy of an item. A hold moves through a lifecycle that drives the staff pull-and-shelve workflow.ReadPoliciesThe rules that govern loans and holds. Resolved from library defaults, an optional faculty or grade-level override, and an optional per-item cap.ReadRosterPatrons (students and faculty) and the homerooms that group them. Shared school-wide, populated by import or sync.Read