How to catalogue a Texas school library
Texas districts must follow state collection standards. Start with an accurate list of what is on the shelves.
Try TitleEntry
In Texas, school districts must follow state standards for library collection development, set by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission under Section 33.021 of the Education Code. A district policy has to describe how a library acquires, maintains and withdraws materials, and the law encourages schools to provide library catalog transparency. All of it starts with knowing exactly what is on the shelves. See also the US school library inventory guide.
A Texas school library catalogue in four steps
Scan what is on the shelves
Scan barcodes with a phone camera or USB scanner, or photograph a shelf and let the AI shelf scanner read the spines. Every book goes into one list with its cover, year and shelf, so you can see what the collection holds.
Tag each book with its shelf
Name each shelf or collection before you scan it, so every book is recorded against where it sits. Moving a book to another shelf later is one edit, not a re-scan.
Review the collection
Each book carries its publication year, language and genre where a book database supplies one, so you can see what the library holds, what is out of date and what needs withdrawing under your district’s own collection development policy.
Export the record
Export the catalogue to Excel. It gives you a list to review against your district's collection development policy, or to share if your district chooses to publish its catalogue.
Other state guides: New York, Ohio and Florida. For all countries, see school library inventory. Read more about the AI bookshelf scanner and ISBN scanning.
What Section 33.021 says
The Texas State Library and Archives Commission adopts voluntary standards for school library services, and standards for collection development that districts must adhere to. The collection development standards require a policy covering how materials are acquired, maintained and withdrawn, recognise parents as the primary decision makers on a student’s access, and encourage library catalog transparency.
A catalogue you can share
Library catalog transparency means a parent or board member can see what a library holds. TitleEntry gives you the list to start from: title, author, ISBN, publisher, year and shelf, exportable to Excel. How a district publishes its catalogue, and in what format, is a decision for the district.
Honest about what TitleEntry is and is not
TitleEntry is a cataloguing and export tool. It is not a library management system: no circulation, no student accounts, no overdue tracking and no public catalogue. It does not decide which materials meet your district’s policy. See our guide to book cataloguing software for how the options compare.
If your district already runs a library system, use the export to check it against the shelves. If it has none, TitleEntry builds the catalogue from the books themselves. For questions about what the law requires of your district, ask your district office or the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
Frequently asked questions
It requires the Texas State Library and Archives Commission to adopt collection development standards that districts must adhere to, including a district collection development policy. Among other things the standards encourage schools to provide library catalog transparency and recognise parents as the primary decision makers on their child’s access to library material. Read the current statute for the full text.
It means making the list of what a school library holds visible to parents and the community. The Texas standards encourage it. A catalogue with titles, authors and ISBNs is the starting point.
Scan every book with a phone camera or USB scanner and photograph shelves of books without barcodes so the AI shelf scanner reads the spines. Name each shelf first so every book is recorded against its location, then export the list.
No. It builds an accurate catalogue and an export. Whether your collection and policy meet the standards is a decision for your district and the standards themselves.
No. It catalogues and exports, with no circulation, student accounts or overdue tracking. If your district already has a library system, use the export to check it against the shelves. If not, the catalogue can be your record.
Get in touch and we will talk through your collections and set you up.
Last verified 6 October 2026. Sources: Texas Education Code Section 33.021; Texas State Library and Archives Commission, School Library Programs: Standards and Guidelines for Texas.