Library

Library is a Jekyll theme for creating a personal digital bookshelf — it turns a list of your favorite books into a static website, and is built by Alex Carpenter under the MIT license.

What is Library?

Library is a static website template for the Jekyll site generator. Instead of running a server, it compiles your book entries into plain HTML files. The theme is designed to display a curated collection of books, and the code is hosted on GitHub with a live demo available at alexcarpenter.github.io/library-jekyll-theme. Because it runs on Jekyll, users work with standard Jekyll features such as front matter and data files to add their books, then generate a full static site. The repository is actively open-sourced and has 64 stars at the time of this write-up, showing a modest level of interest.

Key Features

• Jekyll-powered static output — Uses the Ruby-based Jekyll static site generator, so the final bookshelf consists of fast, static HTML with no server-side processing or database.
• Digital bookshelf layout — The theme's core purpose is to present favorite books in an organized shelf-style display, which is evident from its tagline "Easily create a digital bookshelf of your favorite books".
• Open source (MIT license) — The full source code is public on GitHub, and the MIT license permits free use, modification, and distribution for personal or commercial projects.
• Hostable on GitHub Pages — The demo is hosted at alexcarpenter.github.io, indicating the theme can be deployed to GitHub Pages, a free static hosting service, with no extra server setup.
• Simple content model — Because it is a Jekyll theme, you add books using Jekyll's standard content workflow (e.g., markdown files or YAML data), and the theme handles the presentation.

Who is Library for?

• Book lovers and readers — If you have a personal website and want to showcase the books you've read or your reading list, this theme gives you a ready-made page for that purpose.
• Jekyll users — Developers already familiar with Jekyll can integrate the bookshelf into an existing site or use it as a starting point for a small personal project.
• Writers and educators — Authors and teachers who want to maintain a public bibliography of recommended or referenced books can publish a clean, static list without managing a CMS.

Use cases

• Personal book collections: Display a curated shelf of favorite books on a personal brand site, including titles and authors.
• Reading lists: Build a public reading list of current and finished books, updated over time as you read more.
• Project bibliographies: Create a static page to list books referenced in a research project or a course syllabus.

How does Library work?

As a Jekyll theme, Library follows the standard Jekyll build process. You add your book entries as content files or data, configure the site in Jekyll's configuration file, and run the Jekyll build command. The theme then takes those entries and generates the static HTML for your bookshelf. The exact file structure would be visible in the GitHub repository.

Pricing

Library is free. It is released under the MIT license, so there is no cost to use it, and you can adapt it for your own needs.

FAQ

Is Library a free theme?

Yes, Library is open source under the MIT license, so it is free to download, modify, and use.

What site generator does Library use?

Library is built for Jekyll, the Ruby-based static site generator. You need Jekyll installed (or use GitHub Pages, which supports Jekyll) to build the site.

Can I host Library on GitHub Pages?

The theme's demo is hosted on GitHub Pages (alexcarpenter.github.io/library-jekyll-theme), and as a Jekyll theme it can be deployed to GitHub Pages without any server-side hosting costs.

Who created Library?

Library was created by Alex Carpenter, a developer who is also the author of the theme's GitHub repository and demo site.