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Library-only and shared-catalogue toys

The two states a toy record can be in, what each one does, and how to move between them.

Two states, and that is all

Every toy in your inventory points at one catalogue record, and that record is either:

• Library-only — only your library has it. Someone typed it in, or it came across in your import and has not been matched to anything yet.
• In the shared catalogue — the same record every other ToyHive library uses for that toy.

Library-only does not mean hidden. The toy still appears on your own public catalogue, it still lends, holds, counts pieces and prints labels. It means not shared with other libraries — nothing more.

What each one does

Read the top of the table first: everything a toy library actually does day to day is a yes on both sides. The rows underneath are what sharing adds — other libraries' descriptions, photos and piece lists, pooled ratings, spare-part matching, and a place in the ToyHive-wide catalogue. None of it changes what a library-only toy can do; it changes how much work you have to do yourself.

Making a toy shared

Both paths live on the toy's own page, and after an import you can work through them in bulk from Match toys to the catalogue (under Inventory):

• Link it to a record that already exists. Your copy keeps its own history, condition, shelf and piece list, and picks up the shared record's name, description and photos. Any safety warnings your own record carried — including the ones that came across from your old system — are kept as your library's own on the shared record: they show on the toy's page and print on its label for your library, and no other library sees them. The one thing that does not come across is a loan block or waiver requirement you had set on your own record; the panel that opens before you link says so if it applies.
• Contribute it as a new shared entry when nothing matches. A record has to be complete enough for other libraries to rely on first: a name, a manufacturer, an age range, at least one photo and at least one piece. Until those are filled in, the toy stays library-only — the page tells you which ones are missing.

Two copies of one toy

A library-only record holds one copy. Add a second copy of a toy you already hold library-only — by scanning the same barcode, or typing the same name — and ToyHive makes a second library-only record rather than putting two copies on one. That is exactly how your old system worked, and everything still lends, counts and prints labels.

It also tells you, at the moment it happens, and offers three things:

• Link both to the shared catalogue — pick the shared record and both copies join it. One hold queue, combined availability, the same photos and pieces.
• Contribute the one you already have, when it is complete enough (name, manufacturer, age range, a photo, a piece). It becomes the shared record, and the new copy lands on it.
• Add it as a separate library-only toy — the default, and what happens if you just save.

Two copies that stayed separate are not lost: they meet again in Match toys to the catalogue, where linking one offers to link the rest. No rush — nothing is broken either way.

Editing either one

You can edit a library-only toy directly — nobody else reads that record.

For a shared-catalogue toy, send a correction to the catalogue team instead: they review it before it changes the record every other library sees. See Catalogue & reporting an issue for how that review works and how you hear the outcome.

No rush

Matching is not a job that has to be finished before you open, and nothing waits on it. Work it in sittings, or leave it — every toy lends, counts and prints labels whether it is library-only or shared.