A major feature in LibGuides is the capacity to create, and re-use, Assets.

Assets are the individual pieces of content that we add to our guides. Springshare uses the terms "content items" and "Assets" interchangeably, which is a bit misleading because not all content (a block of text, for example) is an "asset". But most content - including images, widgets, databases, books - are in fact Assets.

We don't have to do anything special to create assets. When we add asset-type content to a guide, it is automatically added to a central repository of assets. This central repository is at Content > Assets (also available via Home > LibGuides Shortcuts > Assets.)

The benefits of having this central repository are:

•    You can view all content items of a certain type (all widgets, all books, etc.).
•    Widget assets can be named (but the name won't appear to users), and so can be easier to find. 
•    You can view all content items with the same name.

The main types of Assets are:

• Links
• Widgets - ("Media/widget", which include videos)
• Books - ("Books from the catalogue")
• Documents
• RSS Feeds
• Databases - a special case, see Assets - Special cases.

Images are not assets: they have their own repository. See Reusing an image.

For more information, see:

• the page in this guide on Reusing common content types
• the box in this guide on Creating assets
• LibGuides Help on Adding content items (assets) to your boxes.