Not every book in a library is a book you plan to read. You may keep textbooks for reference, manuals for work, a cookbook you consult now and then, or a title you simply want to own without putting it on your reading queue.

Until now, the usual reading statuses could make those books feel out of place. Private gives them a clear home in MyBibliotheca.

A shelf for books outside your reading plans

Choose Private when adding a book, or change an existing book's status from its detail page. The book remains in your library, and you can find it by selecting the Private filter in My library or in the Bookshelves picker. It is not deleted or moved into a separate account.

Private books are omitted from your optional public reading page, are not sent as context for book recommendations, and are excluded from public site totals. Your own library remains the place to view and manage them.

Change a book's status whenever it changes roles

A textbook might be a reference book today and a planned read later. Open its detail page and choose another status when that changes. Your book record stays in your library while its category changes.

Private describes where a book appears in MyBibliotheca's public-facing features; it is not a promise of encryption or a replacement for account security. You can review the reading status guide and privacy and sharing controls.

Feature image: “Birmingham Reference Library - The Reading Room” by Edward R. Taylor, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Your reading list can be personal even when you want to share part of it. MyBibliotheca libraries are private by default. You choose in Settings whether to publish a public reading page, and you can turn that page off again later.

A public page shows your display name, books, and reading statuses. Book ratings and reading streak are separate options you can choose to include. Your email address, account details, and private book notes are not shown on the public page.

Share only what you choose

You can use a public page to share what you are reading or what you have finished without making every part of your account public. Leave ratings and streaks off if you only want to share your books and their statuses. Preview the link shown in Settings after saving so you can see what visitors can see.

If you change your mind, clear Make my public page live and save. The public URL stops being live; you can turn sharing on again later.

Privacy also applies to personal details outside a public profile. MyBibliotheca includes account tools to export your own reading data as a CSV, and private notes remain part of your account record.

Learn about controls: Manage privacy and your public library page · Back up and export your data