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Central Libraries

Learn how to share resources across your school or district.

Wallis Lavery avatar
Written by Wallis Lavery
Updated over 6 months ago

What is a central library?

A central library is a repository where admins and designated 'library managers' can curate and make books immediately available to every teacher in your Book Creator organization. You can easily share district-approved resources with every teacher, ensuring a consistent and high quality implementation.

How is a central library different to a normal Book Creator library?

A central library is immediately accessible to all teachers in your organization through their Teacher Dashboard without the need for an invitation. All teachers in your organization can browse the central libraries, read content, and copy the books into their own libraries for use in their classroom. Students cannot access a central library.

How does it work?

As an admin you can:

  • create central libraries

  • copy and move existing books to a central library

  • create, edit and delete books in a central library

  • assign library manager roles to teachers so that they can help populate your central libraries

As a teacher you can:

  • browse the central libraries

  • read books

  • copy books to your personal libraries of choice

How do I add books to a central library?

Sign into https://app.bookcreator.com and navigate to the Teacher Dashboard (via the top left button). In the Libraries tab you will see a section at the bottom with the name of your school or district where you can create your first central library.

With your central library created you can then copy or move any existing books into it or create new books directly in the central library.

By default a newly created central library will be hidden from your teachers, allowing you to finish populating it before making it available. When you are ready for teachers to see it simply click on the eye icon to make it available.

Can I share content as read only?

Content which is locked to be read only can only be read by teachers - they cannot make a copy of it. Libraries and books can be set as read only, allowing you share content for all your district teachers with the access controls you need.

To make an entire library read only, click on the three dot menu and select lock library.

To set a book as read only, from within a central library, click the book options and select lock book.

The teacher experience

Teachers will see any visible central libraries within their Teacher Dashboard. They can browse and read the books, and copy them to their own libraries for use in their classrooms. Teachers will not be able to add books into the central libraries unless you have given them explicit permission (see below).

Read only Content

Teachers will have read only access to the books within a locked library, whether the setting is at the library level or the book level. Teachers are prevented from copying.

Can I allow teachers to manage Central Libraries too?

Yes, within the Admin Dashboard you can assign specific teachers to be Library Managers. They can then manage the content within your central libraries in the same way as an admin.


How do I get this feature?

If you have a domain wide license of Book Creator then the Central Libraries feature is immediately available. Speak to your administrator or account manager for more details. If you’re a customer but not yet on a domain license, talk to your Teacher Success Manager about upgrading to take advantage of this feature.

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