Lists

The OPAC homepage is built around lists (browse rows): each is a horizontal carousel of book covers under a heading. Browsing is list-based discovery (no typing), and the homepage leads with it because it suits the typical class-visit flow. Students see the visible lists stacked top to bottom.

Two kinds of list

• Custom. A self-contained, hand-ordered set of items that a library manager curates, with headings like “Battle of the Books 2026” or “Mrs. Patel’s favorites.” You choose exactly which items are on it and the order they appear — and that is the order patrons get, because the list’s own page, opened from its heading or its See all link, offers no way to re-sort it.
• Automatic. Lyra builds 2 standard lists on its own. New arrivals holds the titles added to your catalog in the last 60 days, newest first. Most checked out holds the titles with loans returned in the last 30 days, most borrowed first. A copy that’s still checked out doesn’t count until it comes back. Their contents update on their own; there’s nothing to curate.

Both kinds sit together on the homepage. The mix is intentional: custom lists surface what the library wants to highlight, while the automatic lists surface what’s new and what’s moving.

The homepage skips any list with nothing to show. After 60 days without a new item, New arrivals drops off the homepage, and it returns as soon as you add one. Most checked out does the same after 30 days without a returned loan, which can happen over a long break. A custom list is skipped the same way when none of its items has a copy. Patrons don’t see a message about it; the other lists move up. If every list is empty, the homepage shows message: Nothing to browse right now and points students to the search box above it.

On the tab: Lists tab, a list that’s on the homepage but has nothing to show says so on its row: message: Empty right now, so students don't see it, or message: No items with a copy, so students don't see it for a custom list. The list’s own page says the same under setting: Homepage visibility, along with what brings an automatic list back.

Managing lists

Lists live on the screen: OPAC page’s tab: Lists tab (Library level navigation path: Configure then OPAC then Lists), which appears once the OPAC is published. Building and changing lists is library-manager work, but every staff member at the library can open the page and each list’s page to read them.

navigation path: Configure then OPAC is in the sidebar for every staff member, and it opens this page. Staff without the library-manager grant see it read-only: the banner linking to the live public catalog, then the lists themselves with no tabs, since tab: Configure is manager-only. There’s no button: New list and no dragging. Before the OPAC is published, they see

message: The OPAC is not set up yet. A library manager can publish it for this library.

in place of the setup wizard.

The tab has two sections:

• On the homepage shows the lists students currently see, in order. A library manager can drag to reorder them; top to bottom here is top to bottom for students.
• Hidden lists are lists that are kept but not shown. Hiding a list keeps its items and settings; it just drops off the homepage.

button: New list opens a dialog to name the list, then drops you on its detail page to add items. Click a list’s name to open its detail page; every row also has a row action: ⋯ menu. For a library manager it holds menu item: Edit list and either menu item: Hide or menu item: Show on homepage, depending on which section it’s in, and on a custom list menu item: Delete list. Deleting asks you to confirm in dialog: Delete List, then removes the list but not the items on it. It can’t be undone. For other staff the menu holds only menu item: View list.

Editing a custom list

A custom list’s detail page is where you curate it. The page itself shows the list: its name as the heading, a badge saying whether it’s on the homepage, a card stating its setting: Homepage visibility and

setting: Audience, and the items. Everything you change about the list lives in the button: Actions menu at the top right, and each entry opens a dialog:

• menu item: Rename… sets the heading students see.
• menu item: Change audience… controls who sees the list (see below). Pick the homerooms, then button: Save — nothing is written until you do.
• menu item: Hide / menu item: Show on homepage moves the list between the two sections. A custom list needs at least one item before it can be shown, so menu item: Show on homepage is disabled while the list is empty.
• menu item: Delete list removes the list but not the items on it.

Other staff get the same page without any of the controls: the name, the

setting: Homepage visibility and setting: Audience card, and the items, but no button: Actions menu, no button: Add items, no row action: ✕ on the rows, and no dragging.

Items are curated on the page itself. button: Add items searches the catalog by title, and each item you add lands at the end. Drag to reorder items (students see them left to right), and remove one with the row action: ✕ on its row. Titles and authors on those rows link into the catalog. To add several at once, select them in the staff catalog and use button: Add to list, and they land on the list you pick (or a new one you name there) without opening it. One item at a time, you can also work from the item’s own page — button: Change beside the lists on its card: Details card puts it on a list or takes it off, and can create a list by name.

A list that runs out of items comes off the homepage on its own. Because an empty list would render as an empty row, removing the last item from a shown list hides it — and so does losing the last item any other way, such as weeding or deleting the item itself. The list keeps its name, audience and settings; add an item and you can show it again.

An automatic list has a detail page too, but you can only rename it (give it a display label), set its audience, and show or hide it. Its contents are computed, so there’s nothing to add or reorder, and it can’t be deleted. Its card: Contents card lists the items it holds right now: the same items, in the same order, as its homepage row. When it’s empty, the card says what fills it again. The name you give it is the one patrons see everywhere the list appears — the homepage row, the heading on its See all page, and that page’s browser tab. Clear the field to go back to the default name.

Homeroom-scoped lists

Every list has an audience. By default it’s Everyone, but you can limit it to homerooms:

• Only selected homerooms shows the list only for patrons in the homerooms you pick. Good for “Mrs. Patel’s class is reading X” or a grade’s summer-reading list.
• Hide from selected homerooms shows the list for everyone except the homerooms you pick.

When a scoped list actually appears depends on the library’s visit mode, which governs when Lyra knows a patron’s homeroom: in a With their class library the list appears once a patron picks their homeroom; in an On their own library it appears only after sign-in. Everyone-audience lists show for all patrons either way.

See also

• Setting up the OPAC — publishing the catalog and choosing a visit mode.
• Search & holds — the other path to a book, for when a patron knows what they want.
• Narrowing the results — the availability and reading-level controls on a list’s own page.
• Homerooms — the objects behind homeroom-scoped audiences.