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Inspiration

It wasn't a single EUREKA moment. This app was meant to be just to be for my personal use. I love buying books ( & read them too, I try my best!) but at bookstore, instead of enjoying the vibe, I started getting stressed about: 1. Do I already own this book? 2. Did my wife tell me in a passing comment that she loves a particular book?

The cognitive overload was real. I tried existing book cataloging apps, but they were either riddled with ads, felt like data entry homework and most importantly, did not tell me whether I owned this book or not without workarounds. I even tried Excel sheets (again a data entry nightmare) and maintaining a running list with photos in family chats ( which was a memory/storage problem and unreliable)

So one night, I created a simple untitled app which now is ShelfKeeper.

What does ShelfKeeper do?

More than what ShelfKeeper does, Here is what it doesn't do:

Track performative metrics. We believe that reading off late have become definition of Goodhart's Law, where metrics like how many books/pages you've read, how long did you take to read it, what your mood, how well did you do compared to your peers etc. I just want to read!!
Track every move of yours outside the app.
Sell your data to companies and bombard you with ads.
Judge you based on how many friends you have or how many posts you make.

So what does ShelfKeeper do?

Offline first digital library with cloud backup. Add your books to your digital library by scanning ISBN. All books are stored locally, unlimited.
To avoid cognitive overload, we only have three sections. Home library ( owned books), Borrowed, and Wishlist.
Never buy a duplicate book again. Our Store Mode notifies you when you scan a book you already have and best part? It works with different editions as well and it works without internet
Digital Shelfie - Create beautiful, curated book lists from your bookshelf in a neat, digital shelf to share with friends, family or social media using various fonts, colors and shelves! Optimised for Booktok and Bookstagram!
(Pro Feature) Add multiple books at the same time using Cover Scan. Point camera at the books and scan all at once to your library.
(Pro Feature) Add Family books at the same time using Cover Scan. Point camera at the books and scan all at once.
(Pro Feature) Use Library cleanup to clean all messy titles without resorting to manual data entry.
Added book doesn't have a cover image? ShelfKeeper actively identifies missing front covers or placeholder images and replaces them with beautiful custom cover So you don't have to share Digital Shelfies with awkward, missing titles. ## How we built it ShelfKeeper was built using the below tech stack
Frontend Framework: Flutter for cross-platform app development
Backend: Supabase for Database and auth
Google ML Kit to instantly scan ISBNs
SQLite Local storage
Revenuecat for parent integrations across iOS and Android ## Challenges we ran into Building ShelfKeeper had its own share of challenges.
Making the app work on majority of Android phones, including low budget one, which had poor camera quality
Ensuring every scanned book was resolved accurately by using multiple book APIs - and making sure that they conflict with each other.
Rate limiting API calls to ensure no disruption in services. ## Accomplishments that we're proud of
Used by people across age groups during testing phase. A child, adults and senior citizens and they found the app convenient. Biggest achievement is the child scanned all their books, neatly cataloging their shelves. ## Lessons learnt Months of development, feature enhancements and removal, constant testing told us one thing. Sometimes, less is more ## What's ahead for ShelfKeeper ShelfKeeper is currently in open testing on Android at the time of this submission.
Go live on Android Google Play Store.
Complete iOS development and launch on iOS App Store.
Once We're live on both platform, build a consistent user base in both ecosystem.
Long term goal of ShelfKeeper is to build a niche community where reading is just reading.