Don't have a Library option in the Main Menu bar?
Administrators can disable the Student Library. If this is the case for your institution, and you are a Student, you will only see the Courses and possibly a Collections option in the top menu. This article does not apply to you, and you can stop reading.

All of the content you have access to and that you can view or work with outside of a course is found on your EchoVideo Library page, shown below. This is sometimes also referred to as your "Media Library" or "Content Library". The Library page combines all of the media you have access to in one place.

The below figure shows a user's library page, with the Library option in the main menu identified. It points out the Collections panel on the library, which contains collections tiles, as well as the Media panel, which contains media tiles. All of these are described in more detail later on this page.

Library page showing collections and media with Library selection in main menu identified

What you can do with this media depends a lot on whether or not you own the media, and your role in the system (instructor, teaching assistant, student). Students may not have much content to work with. Instructors probably have some content available, maybe a lot.

The bottom line is that the Library page provides a single content management location for your media.

If you are an instructor or teaching assistant, you may also want to read Managing Media in Classrooms for information on publishing media directly to a class, and for working with the media published there.

The Collections Tiles

The top portion of the Library contains a panel showing Collections tiles for those collections you are a member of. By default these, like the media tiles, are listed in order of Date Created, newest first.

Each collection tile shows the name of the collection, the number of media, the number of members in the collection, and a menu button. For more information about Collections, see Collections - Overview.

These collections tiles are the same as you would see in your Collections page, or are a subset of them. The library shows up to two rows of collection tiles, with an additional tile indicating if there are more available.

In the figure above, the user is only a member of five collections, all of which are shown in the Collections panel. In the below figure, the user is a member of 23 collections, nine of which are shown, along with a tile indicating there are 14 more.

Library page showing Collections panel containing nine collections tiles and one plus more tile as described

Clicking ON a collection tile takes you to the Media page for the collection, just like clicking on a collection tile from the Collections page.

Clicking on the "+ more" tile takes you to the main Collections page, just like clicking Collections from the main menu at the top.

Collapse or expand the Collections panel using the chevron to the left of the Collections panel title.

The Media Tiles

As stated at the top of this page, the media tiles are the media you have access to outside of your courses, meaning you can view the media without having to navigate into a course or classroom. This includes media you own, media that someone has shared with you, AND media that resides in any collections you are a member of.

Library page with media panel identified showing media tiles for access as described

Each media tile on the Library page provides a thumbnail preview of the media. It provides the Name of the media and WHO owns it. If you own it, it is your name shown. If the media has been shared with you through a collection, or individually, the owners name is shown. This may be the case for a lot of the media in your library if you are a member of multiple collections that contain many media.

The media tile shows the length of the video/interactive media or the number of slides in a presentation. And it indicates how long ago it was added to the system. For captures of classroom lectures, the title of the media is often also the name of the course for which it was created. This is the case for the figure shown below.

Media tile as shown in the library page with information as described

Clicking ON a media tile opens the Media Details page. The media details page provides the ability to view the item along with other information and functionality.

Hovering over a media tile exposes a menu button in the lower right corner of the thumbnail image.

Click the menu button to access commands available to you. What menu options you can select on any given piece of media depends on many factors including your role in the system, whether certain features have been enabled/disabled for your institution, how you have access to the media, and the permissions you have been granted. This menu is simply a shortcut to the same commands you will have available on the Media Details page.

Library media tile with menu button identified and selected and menu options shown as described

Searching and Filtering Your Library

The top of the Library page contains both a search and a filtering option to help you find the media and/or collection you are looking for. These are described briefly below; see Finding Your Stuff for more detailed information if needed.

Library page with search text box and filters link identified for selection and use as described

Search Library is a text box that allows you to search for media or a collection by Title. Begin typing in the box, and the Library filters the contents to display only those items where the typed text matches text in the title.

Click the Filters link to filter the media based on the selections available. These are shown in the below figure and defined in the section that follows.

Library filter modal containing filtering options available as described

Or BOTH! Filter the library first, then perform a Search on the remaining items.

NOTE: Only the Owner filtering option applies to the Collections shown in the Library. It refers to users who are Managers for the collections you are a member of. Selection of any other filter option applies only to the media in your library, and results in a Collections panel that is empty while that filter is applied.

Library Filters

Below is the list of filtering options available for your Library, with a brief definition of each.

Type - Filter by the type of media you are looking for
- Audio
- Video
- Presentation
- Interactive Media
- Poll
Owner - Filter media by owner/filter collections by Manager. Note that this is the ONLY filter that applies to collections on the library page.
- Anyone - All items, regardless of owner/manager. This is the default.
- Anyone except me - For media, this is media you can see in your library but you do not own it. It may reside in a collection you are a member of, or it may have been shared directly with you.
  For collections, these are collections in which you are NOT a Manager.
- Me - For media, this is media you own and which is yours to do with as you please. See the sections later on this page for information on where this media came from, as well as why ownership of media matters. As the name implies, this is content you own. It is yours to do with as you please.
  For collections, these are the collections in which you are a Manager (formerly called Owner). You can control all aspects of the collection. Note that collections can have multiple managers.
Source - Filter by where or how the source media was generated.
- Classroom Captures - Videos created in the classroom by a capture appliance or Universal Capture: Classroom installation. This ALSO includes any interactive media created FROM a classroom capture recording.
- Live Captures - Videos created with the Live Stream option selected; can include both classroom captures or personal captures that were also streamed live.
- Meeting Recordings - Videos created of Zoom meetings that were automatically ingested through the Zoom integration with EchoVideo. Zoom meetings that are manually uploaded are classified as "Uploads".
  
  NOTE: Only Zoom meetings that have occurred after June 30/July 1, 2020 are tagged as Meeting Recordings. Those added prior to then are classified as "Uploads".
- Personal Captures - Videos created using Universal Capture: Personal (and it's predecessor Personal Capture/PCAP)
- Uploads - Media that was added by uploading the media file to EchoVideo.
Status - Filter by the status of the media
- Shared - Media that has been shared individually with other users, OR posted to an EchoVideo course. It does not apply to collection media.
- Not Shared - Media that has not been shared with any individual user, or is not currently posted to an EchoVideo course. If you own the media, it means that this media ONLY resides in your library and in any collection it may have been added to.

Publishing location filters

The publishing location or "Found In" filters are at the bottom of the Filter dialog box shown above.

Term - Filter to show all media published to all course sections from a selected term.
Course - Filter for only media published to a selected course section.

It is important to note that a "Shared" status refers to both media that you have shared with other individuals as well as media that is published to a course. Meaning if you select Not Shared as a status but then also select a Term or Course, you will not get any results, because those filters are mutually exclusive.

How does media get into my Library

There are several ways media ends up in your Library page.

You are the instructor identified for a Capture Schedule for a course. You own the class recordings made and they appear in your Library.
Uploading media to Echo; you own this media.
The media is in a Collection where you are a member; this media can be viewed from either your Library or the Collection where it resides. What else you can do with it depends on your collection permissions.
Creating a personal capture using Universal Capture: Personal.
Create a Copy from the Class list; you own the copy.
Another user shares media with you; you do not own this and may only be able to view it. See Viewing Shared Media for more information.
Copying shared media; you own the copy.
Copying collection media; you own the copy.
Making copies of your own content, in case you want to edit one version while keeping the original intact.
You generate an ad hoc capture; since you initiated it, you own it.

Select the Filter link (described above) and select the Owner option to filter your media by whether or not YOU own it or it belongs to someone else (owned by "Anyone except me").

Why does media ownership matter

As stated above, the Media Details page is available for all media in your Library. Use this to view the media. You may be able to do other things with the media, even if you don't own it. That depends on a lot of different factors, the most common being your role (student, teaching assistant, instructor) and your permissions in any collection where the media resides.

Owners have full control over their media. Instructor-owners have more functionality than student-owners do (students cannot publish to a course, for example). OWNED media appears in the Library page with YOUR name at the bottom of the tile.

What can media owners do that non-owners typically cannot?

Edit the Name (title) or Description of the media
Share or unshare the media with another user
Add the media to a collection
Edit a Video with the EchoVideo video editor.
Manage transcriptions of video or audio media.
Edit a Presentation by adding or removing slides, or editing Polling slides
Delete the media from the system altogether (see the exception to deleting below)

Note, however, that we said "typically". If the collection media also resides in an EchoVideo course where certain features are enabled (i.e., course media editing, student transcript editing), you may be able to perform these functions from your Library even though you are not the owner.

Instructors and Teaching Assistants who are owners can also:

Share (Post) or remove from a class in an EchoVideo course
Manage the Closed Captions on a video (Upload or Delete)
Create a URL link to the media to post or share with others
Create an embeddable URL to copy and post external to EchoVideo

Exception to deleting media: Typically you can delete any media you own. This removes it from all locations in Echo (and it cannot be recovered!). Users can always delete media they uploaded or copies they created of other media. Instructors may be able to delete classroom recordings if an administrator has allowed it (it's an institutional setting), or you may not. If you see media in your Library page that you own but cannot delete, this is probably why. If is a problem for you, contact your Administrator for assistance.

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