Add an "Unlisted" option to "Book Visibility" in the "Sharing and Privacy Settings"

[harperfri]

Feature Description

Using a similar definition of "Unlisted" to YouTube's Unlisted privacy setting, a Pressbooks "Unlisted" book visibility setting would mean that:

• A book would not be findable via search engines such as Google
• A book would not be able to be added to the Pressbooks Directory
• A book could be viewed by anyone if given the URL of the book (including users with accounts that are not listed as Users on the book as well as those without Pressbooks accounts)

Feature Use Case

Many faculty members at different institutions are either creating their own textbooks in Pressbooks or adapting existing books to use in their classes. Some of them are using their books as working copies; books that they are using in their classes but they are still working on and are not ready for publishing.

Giving this third option of "Unlisted" book visibility would allow them to give their students access to the book while giving them the privacy to fix errors and improve upon it until they're ready for it to be public.

Other Notes

The current options for teachers using working copies of their own textbooks are:

1. Making the book private and requiring all their students to make accounts (which is not always feasible) to subscribe to the book, or
2. Making the book public, removing it from the Pressbooks Directory, and hoping nobody finds the book via search engines.

We have gotten several inquiries via our BCcampus OpenEd Help email on this subject, asking for a way to share their book only with their students but not with the public.