What is a Central library?
A Central library is a repository where administrators and designated 'library managers' can curate and make books immediately available to every teacher in your Book Creator organization. This feature allows you to easily share district-approved resources with all teachers, ensuring a consistent and high-quality implementation across your schools.
Central library vs. teacher library: roles and abilities
A Central library is unique because it's accessible to all teachers in your organization directly through the Teacher Dashboard, without the need for an invitation. All teachers can browse these central libraries, read content, and copy books into their own classroom libraries for use with their students. It's important to note that students cannot access a central library directly.
Here's how roles differ within a Central library:
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 to add books to a Central library
Step 1: Log into Book Creator and navigate to the LIBRARIES tab: Click the top-left button to access the Teacher Dashboard LIBRARIES tab.
Step 2: Locate the Central Libraries section: In the LIBRARIES tab, you will see a Central libraries tab on the navigation bar, which brings you to a section at the bottom of the page with the name of your school or district. This is where you can create your first Central library.
Step 3: Add content: With your Central library created, you can then copy or move any existing books into it, or create new books directly within the Central library.
Step 4: Making a library visible: 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 visible.
Sharing content as read-only
You have the flexibility to share content with your teachers with the access controls you need.
Entire library as read-only: To make an entire library read-only, click on the three-dot menu and select "Lock library." Teachers will only be able to read books in a locked library and will be prevented from copying them.
Individual books as read-only: From within a Central library, click the book options and select "Lock book" to set an individual book as read-only. Teachers will have read-only access to these specific books and cannot copy them.
How to get Central Libraries
If you have a domain-wide license for Book Creator, the Central Libraries feature is immediately available to you. 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. Alternatively, you can contact our sales team.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q: Can students access a Central library?
A: No, central libraries are designed for teachers and administrators. Students cannot directly access a central library.
Q: Can I change the icons on Central libraries?
A: Yes, just as you can personalize your own libraries, if you are an admin or library manager, you can change the icons of central libraries too.
Q: Can I allow teachers to manage Central libraries too?
A: 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.
Q: What does the teacher experience look like?
A: Teachers will see the 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 directly to a Central library unless you have given them explicit 'library manager' permission.
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