Libraries App Overview

Libraries

1. What it is

Libraries lets you organize company resources — links, files, forms, surveys, wiki pages, posts, images, and videos — into curated collections that employees can browse without searching across platforms. Each library is a named container with categories inside it, and items inside those categories.

• Enablement: Libraries requires a license. An admin enables it from the Apps Marketplace, then creates libraries and populates them with items.
• What it is not: Libraries is not a file-storage system. For version-controlled file management, use Drive. Libraries curates pointers to resources that may live in Drive, Forms, Surveys, Wikis, or external URLs.

2. Standing it up

1. Go to Apps Marketplace and enable Libraries.
2. Open Libraries → Settings and review the defaults. The most important choice is Default Permission for New Libraries, which controls who can add or remove items in libraries you create from this point forward. The default is Admins only.
3. Go to the All Libraries tab and click Create New Library. Give it a name, choose a library type, set its visibility and management level, then save.
4. Inside the library, create at least one category (a named section), then add items to it — links, files, forms, surveys, wiki pages, posts, images, or videos.
5. Confirm it works: switch to a non-admin test account and verify the library appears on the Libraries dashboard and the items open correctly. If the library’s visibility is set to Specific Audiences, only users matching the audience rules will see it.

Silent-until-paired: a library with Specific Audiences visibility and the Admins & specific users management level requires audience rules for both halves to work. Without audience rules, non-admin users cannot see the library and no one outside the admin group can contribute items.

App admin role: you can designate specific users as Libraries app admins without making them full organization admins. Libraries app admins can access Settings, Insights, create and manage all libraries, and see disabled libraries — the same access as an organization admin, but scoped to Libraries.

3. How it fits together

Libraries, categories, and items. A library is a top-level container with a name, icon, color, and permissions. Inside each library you create categories — named sections that group related items. Items sit inside categories. Each item points to a resource: an external link, an uploaded file, a published form, an active survey, a wiki page, a post, an image, or a video.

Example: a library called “New Hire Resources” might contain three categories:

• Company Policies — link items pointing to the employee handbook and the PTO policy wiki page.
• Required Forms — form items linking to published Forms templates (I-9, direct deposit enrollment).
• Welcome Videos — video items holding uploaded MP4 files (CEO welcome, office tour).

Library type determines which item types are allowed:

• Mixed Content — accepts all eight item types (link, file, form, survey, wiki, post, image, video).
• Images & Videos only — restricts the library to image and video items. Attempting to add any other type is blocked by validation.

Library type is set when you create the library and can be changed later from the library’s edit form. Changing a Mixed Content library to Images & Videos only does not remove existing non-image items, but prevents new ones from being added.

Two permission axes: visibility and management. Visibility controls who can see the library. Management level controls who can add, edit, and delete items in it. They are configured independently per library.

• Visibility has two choices: All Users (everyone in the organization) or Specific Audiences (only users matching audience rules you define — by individual user, department, group, location, job family, job title, organizational role, or platform role).
• Management level has four choices: Any Network User, Admins & specific users, Admins only (the default), or Domain Admins only. When set to Admins & specific users, only users given the Contributor or Manager role in the library’s audience rules can manage items alongside admins.

Audience rules and library roles. Each audience rule targets a segment (a user, a department, a group, etc.) and carries a role: Viewer, Contributor, or Manager. Viewers can see the library. Contributors can also add and edit items. Managers can do everything contributors can plus manage categories and edit the library itself.

Per-library display options. Each library has two visual toggles: Show category icons and Show item icons, both on by default. Categories and items can also carry custom icons via the icon picker, and each category has its own layout mode (Grid, Large, or Compact) and sort order (Admin defined, A to Z, or Z to A).

Governance. When enabled in Settings, the governance system periodically scans library items for staleness, broken external links, and inactive linked sources (e.g. a form that was unpublished after it was added to a library). Issues are classified by severity — a missing source is critical, an inactive source is medium. Review reminders are sent in a tiered order: first to users with the Manager role on the affected library, then to designated Libraries app admins, then to organization admins as a last resort. The Insights tab shows open issues grouped by severity and lists the most affected libraries.

Connections to other apps. Items can link to resources in Forms, Surveys, Wikis, and the News Feed. The item picker only offers published forms, active surveys, published wiki pages, and published posts — unpublished or inactive records are excluded so items do not point at inaccessible content. Library items also appear in Global Search (when the Include Libraries in Global Search setting is on) and on the Libraries dashboard widget.

Browser extension. Users with the MangoApps browser extension can clip a web page directly into a library. The clipper saves the page as a link item in the library and category the user selects. The same management-level permissions apply: a user who cannot add items to a library in the app cannot clip into it from the extension either.

Mobile. Libraries has mobile web views at /m/apps/libraries. Phone browsers are automatically redirected to the mobile experience, which supports browsing libraries, viewing items, and searching. Mobile search uses infinite scroll with 20 results per page.

4. Running it

Creating a library

1. Go to Libraries → All Libraries and click Create New Library (admin only).
2. Fill in the name (up to 100 characters), optional description (up to 500 characters), icon, and color.
3. Choose the Library Type and Default View Mode (Grid, Large, or Compact). The view mode seeds each new category you add — existing categories keep their own layout.
4. Set Visibility and Who can add or remove items?, then configure audience rules if needed.
5. Save. The library appears on the dashboard.

Adding items

1. Open a library and click Add Item in a category.
2. Choose an item type. For links, enter a URL and title. For forms, surveys, wikis, and posts, use the picker to select a published record. For images and videos, upload the file (up to 100 MB).
3. Save. If Notify Users When New Items Are Added is turned on in Settings, eligible users receive an in-app notification and email.

Enabling or disabling a library

Admins can toggle a library between enabled and disabled from the library’s detail page. A disabled library is hidden from non-admin users but remains visible (badged “Disabled”) to admins on the dashboard, so it can be re-enabled. Libraries are enabled by default when created.

Deleting a library

From the library’s edit page, an admin or library manager can delete the library. This permanently removes the library, all its categories, and all its items.

Reordering

Admins can drag to reorder libraries on the main dashboard and reorder categories and items within a library.

Searching

Use the Search tab to find items across all libraries. Search matches on item title and description. Results are filtered to libraries the current user can access. On mobile, the same search is available from the Libraries mobile view.

Switching views on the dashboard

The main Libraries page supports three views, selectable from the page header:

• Modern View — a card grid showing each library with its icon, color, and item count.
• Classic View — an accordion layout.
• Tree View — a collapsible hierarchy.

The default is set in Settings → Default Library View. Users can switch freely; their choice applies for that session.

Reviewing the Insights tab

Go to Libraries → Insights (admin only) to see governance findings, knowledge gap analysis results, and content statistics. The Governance Summary shows open issues by severity and the most affected libraries. The Knowledge Gaps section shows search terms that returned zero results — topics your libraries may be missing. The Content Statistics section shows a breakdown of items by type across all libraries.

Loading sample data

Go to Libraries → Settings and click Load Sample Data to create 4 example libraries with 9 categories and 18 sample link items. Sample data is visible to all users. Clicking Remove Sample Data deletes only the sample libraries that have not been modified — a sample library that you have added your own items or categories to is kept and stops being marked as sample data.

5. Settings

All settings are at Libraries → Settings (admin only).

Setting	Section	Default	What it changes
Default Library View	General	Modern View	The layout for the main Libraries page. Modern shows a card grid; Classic shows an accordion; Tree shows a collapsible hierarchy. Users can switch views from the page header.
Default Permission for New Libraries	General	Admins only	Who can add, edit, and delete items when a new library is created. Can be changed per library after creation.
Enable Libraries AI Agent	AI & Search	Off	Lets users interact with Libraries through Ask AI to search, browse, and get recommendations. Admins can also manage content through the agent.
Include Libraries in Global Search	AI & Search	On	Includes library item titles and descriptions in the platform’s global search results.
Enable Governance Automation	Governance Automation	Off	Scans library items for stale content, broken external links, and inactive sources on a recurring cycle.
Default Review Interval (days)	Governance Automation	90	Days between governance review cycles. Items not updated within this interval are flagged.
Check for Broken Links	Governance Automation	On	Verifies external URLs on link items and flags failures.
Send Governance Review Reminders	Governance Automation	On	Sends review reminders to the library’s managers, or to Libraries admins if none are assigned.
Enable Knowledge Gap Analysis	Knowledge Gap Analysis	Off	Analyzes zero-result search queries to surface missing content topics on the Insights tab. Enabling this also records which employee searched; when off, search terms are logged anonymously.
Send Gap Analysis Summaries	Knowledge Gap Analysis	On	Sends periodic summaries of knowledge gaps to admins.
Notify Users When New Items Are Added	Notifications	Off	Sends in-app and email notifications to users who can access a library when a new item is added.

6. More help

• Libraries FAQ — specific setup and operating questions, including limits, ranges, and troubleshooting.
• Ask AI — the assistant answers questions about Libraries from these articles. Enable the Libraries AI Agent in Settings to let users search, browse, and (for admins) manage library content through Ask AI.