---
title: Material Library
description: Enterprise material library, categories, sub-libraries, visibility, download approval, waterfall browsing, metadata filtering and AI image search.
slug: material-library
lang: en
category: Product Features
category_order: 2
order: 18
keywords:
  - material library
  - sub-library
  - waterfall view
  - image assets
  - AI image search
  - material library API
---

# Material Library

The material library is BabelBird's centralized workspace for images, brand assets, design files, drawings, marketing materials, product assets and reusable digital content. It keeps the upload, preview, tags, search, sharing, versions, logs and permissions of normal enterprise folders, while adding material categories, sub-libraries, category visibility, download approval, waterfall browsing, image metadata filtering and AI image search.

![Material library entry](../../assets/images/material-library-entry.png)
*The material library can appear as an independent entry in the workspace or file navigation, helping users switch from general file management to asset management.*

## Use Cases

| Scenario | Typical content | Management goal |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Brand library | Logos, visual identity, fonts, standard graphics, campaign images | Ensure everyone uses the same latest brand assets |
| Design library | Images, PSD, AI, CAD, 3D files, renders | Preserve reusable assets by project, category, customer or product line |
| Marketing library | Posters, videos, product images, brochures | Search, preview, download and share materials with sales or channels |
| Engineering drawing library | Drawings, scans, process images, deliverables | Control circulation with permissions, versions, archiving and audit |
| Product asset library | Product images, packaging images, specification images, metadata | Support e-commerce, channels, customer service and production teams |
| AI image knowledge base | Images, images in PDFs, tagged materials | Work with AI image search, image-to-image search, OCR and auto tags |

## Categories And Sub-Libraries

Material libraries are usually organized first by business category and then by sub-library. Categories describe broad management domains such as brand assets, product images, marketing materials and engineering drawings. Sub-libraries represent operating units such as a brand, product line, annual project, customer, region or department.

![Material categories and sub-libraries](../../assets/images/material-library-category-sub-libraries.png)
*Categories and sub-libraries keep large image collections from becoming a single unmanageable folder.*

![Sub-library management](../../assets/images/material-library-sub-library.png)
*A sub-library is still a BabelBird file object and can use upload, preview, versions, logs, tags, descriptions and permission control.*

## Visibility And Access Control

A material library is not a public gallery. Administrators can control who can see, download and manage assets by category, sub-library, department, member and role. For organizations that authorize by product line, region or brand, category visibility can limit each team to the material areas relevant to them.

![Material category visibility](../../assets/images/material-library-category-visibility.png)
*Category visibility controls which departments, product lines or business teams can see a material category.*

Common controls include:

- Library entry permission: whether a user can access the material library module.
- Category visibility: whether a department or member can see a category.
- Sub-library management: who can maintain a sub-library, upload assets, organize folders and edit descriptions.
- File-level permissions: file access control, time-limited permission, sharing permission and download permission.
- Security policy: watermarks, download restrictions, access logs and audit for high-value design files, drawings, customer images and unreleased product images.

## Download Approval And Asset Protection

Images, videos, design files and drawings in a material library often carry copyright, commercial value or release timing requirements. BabelBird can put material downloads under approval. Users can browse and search assets, while downloading original files or high-value files requires authorization.

![Material download approval](../../assets/images/material-library-category-approval.png)
*Download approval protects sensitive or high-value materials without removing browsing and search visibility.*

Typical practices include:

- Require approval for campaign images, customer materials and design source files.
- Allow sales, channels or external partners to preview materials while restricting originals.
- Use watermarks, sharing expiration and access logs to track external distribution.
- Separate expired, outdated or disabled materials with categories and tags.

## Search, Metadata And Waterfall View

When image volume grows, folder hierarchy alone is not enough. Material libraries usually combine tags, descriptions, file names, image metadata, advanced search, OCR and AI image search. For photography, product images, catalog images and project site photos, metadata can filter by shooting time, image size, device, uploader or tags.

![Filter images by metadata](../../assets/images/image-metadata-filter.png)
*Image metadata helps users narrow large material collections to the files they need.*

![Waterfall material view](../../assets/images/waterfall.webp)
*Waterfall view is suitable for quickly browsing, selecting and previewing large image collections.*

## Relationship With Zhichao AI

The material library gives AI a structured, permission-aware and auditable scope of files and images. Within the user's authorized range, Zhichao AI can provide text-to-image search, image-to-image search, image OCR, PDF image search and auto tags. This addresses image collections where names are inconsistent, folders are deep and visual content cannot be found by keywords alone.

![Zhichao AI image search](../../assets/images/ai-image-search.webp)
*AI image search helps find materials by visual content, text and semantic descriptions.*

## Operating Recommendations

| Area | Recommendation |
| --- | --- |
| Category planning | Start with a small number of stable business categories, then use sub-libraries for product lines, projects or yearly materials |
| Naming and tags | Keep basic information in names, use tags for cross-folder business meaning and add descriptions to important images |
| Permission boundary | Use download approval or download restrictions for brand source files, design source files, customer materials and unreleased product images |
| Cleanup | Build a cleanup process for outdated materials, duplicates and temporary files |
| AI search | Enable OCR, AI image search and metadata filtering for large libraries with inconsistent names |
| API integration | Use the material library API with websites, PIM, DAM, e-commerce, business systems or automation workflows |

## Related Pages

- [Image Metadata](metadata-search.md)
- [Waterfall View](waterfall-view.md)
- [Zhichao AI Search](ai-search.md)
- [Permission System](permissions.md)
- [File Review](file-review.md)
- [Create Material Category](api-post-nd-api-file-create-material-class.md)
- [Create Sub-Material Library](api-post-nd-api-file-create-material-folder.md)