- Overview: The New Libraries Experience
- Scope
- Key changes: What's the difference between the legacy Libraries and the new Libraries?
- What are some of the ways I can use the new Libraries?
- New functionality and changes
- Current Limitations
- Future improvements and expansions
- Migration of Legacy Libraries
The relaunch of :ref:`Content Libraries <Content Libraries Overview>` includes a suite of new features and functionality that make Libraries centralized hubs for creating, managing and reusing content.
Authors can create content independently of the course outline, and reuse it in as many courses as they'd like, with synced updates.
Authors can choose to reuse single pieces of content independently, or to create problem banks of content that can be randomized.
Libraries hold as much content as needed, with tools for searching, filtering and adding tags. Users can also create subsets, or collections of content, within Libraries.
In Sumac, the first phase of the relaunch includes the ability to create and reuse components, add tags, search, and create content collections. Future releases will include the ability to create and reuse units, subsections and sections, and to import content or courses into Libraries.
Libraries can now hold content at scale. This means as many videos, problems and text blocks as you'd like. You no longer need to create a new Library for every assessment or problem. Put them all into one Library, and use new tools within the Library such as :ref:`Collections <Build a Collection in a Library>` to manage and organize your content.
Libraries now support more flexible content reuse, including but not limited to problem bank randomization. This means you can reuse individual problems or videos, in one or many courses. You can also create a bank of problems that displays a randomized set of problems to learners. Content can be updated in Libraries and changes synced to courses.
- I can use one Library to create and organize all of the problem variants I need for my assessment and its randomized iterations.
- I can create subject-specific collections to organize content on particular topics.
- I can create a block of introductory text and use it in 3 relevant courses, and when I update the text, I can sync the updates centrally.
- I can use tags to help me organize my content. For example, to indicate which user or org "owns" a piece of content (Author Bob), what the source of the content is (Source MIT PHYS 100), difficulty (Easy; Medium; Hard), and more.
- :ref:`Reimagined Library Homepage<Navigate the Library Homepage>` with a new, intuitive UI
- :ref:`Search bar, filter and sort<Search for content in a Library>` enables easy discovery and management of content
- :ref:`Collections<Build a Collection in a Library>` make it easy to create subsets of content
- :ref:`Expanded content creation<Create and edit content in a Library>` means authors can create any problem type, video block or text block directly in a Library
- :ref:`Tags<Add and Delete tags in Library content>` enable subject matter experts to align Library content with skills or competency tags
- :ref:`Improved content management tools<Use content sidebars to manage content>` make it easy to manage, track and update content
- :ref:`New publishing workflows<Publish Library content>` allow for more flexible content creation and editing
- :ref:`Permissions tools<Add users to Libraries>` lets administrators grant edit and read-only access at the Library level
- :ref:`Expanded reuse functionality<Add Library content to a course>` lets authors make content updates centrally and :ref:`sync locally to courses<Sync a Library update to your course>`
- :ref:`Improvements to content randomization workflows<Add a Problem Bank to your course for randomization>` make it easier to create problem banks with randomization parameters
We consider the Sumac overhaul of Libraries to be an MVP, with plans to continue building on and improving the feature in future releases. The following is a list of limitations that will be addressed or fixed in future releases:
- Libraries do not yet support Advanced Blocks. This includes ORA.
- While Libraries support static assets, there is not yet a UI within the editor to add them. They may be added via the advanced settings in the OLX editor, or they may be added via a component that was copied from a course.
- Libraries will support the creation and reuse of units, subsections and sections.
- Libraries will support importing workflows, meaning that a full course can be imported into a Library.
- A new Library sync page in the course outline will make it easier to track and manage content updates.
- We will continue to refine the content reuse and content randomization workflows.
The Legacy Libraries feature will be supported through Teak, moving to unsupported in Ulmo. Teak will include a one-click migration feature that will make it easy to convert a Legacy Library into the new Library interface.
Maintenance chart
| Review Date | Working Group Reviewer | Release | Test situation |
| 2025-04-28 | Data WG | Teak | Deprecated: This is no longer the current release |
| 2025-04-15 | Libraries Team | Sumac | Pass |