---
title: Material library
description: Introduces the enterprise material library, material classification, sub-material library, waterfall flow display, permission control, search filtering and AI image search collaboration.
slug: material-library
lang: en
category: Product Features
category_order: 2
order: 23
keywords:
  - Material library
  - waterfall flow
  - Picture material
  - AI image search
  - Material library API
---

# material library

The material library is Babel's centralized management capability for pictures, brand assets, design materials, drawings, marketing materials and reusable digital assets. It inherits the same upload, preview, tag, search, sharing, version, log and permission capabilities as an ordinary enterprise folder, while adding classification, sub-material library, waterfall flow display and material access control for material management.

![Material library interface](../../assets/images/web-assets.webp)
*The material library is suitable for unified management of pictures, design drafts, product pictures, brand assets, drawings and marketing materials by category.*

![Waterfall material display](../../assets/images/waterfall.webp)
*Waterfall flow view is suitable for quick browsing, selection and preview of large amounts of picture materials.*

## Applicable scenarios

| Scenario | Typical content | Management objectives |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Brand material library | Logo, VI, fonts, standard diagrams, activity diagrams | Ensure that the same latest version of brand assets is used inside and outside the enterprise |
| Design material library | Pictures, PSD, AI, CAD, 3D, renderings | Precipitate reusable materials by project, category, customer or product line |
| Marketing database | Posters, videos, product images, brochures | Quickly search, preview, download and share with sales or channels |
| Engineering drawing library | Design drawings, scans, process drawings, delivery drawings | Combined with authority, version, archiving and audit control flow |
| AI picture knowledge base | Pictures, pictures in PDF, tagged materials | Used with AI image search, image search, OCR and automatic labeling |

## Structural model

- The material library can be divided into multiple material categories according to corporate business.
- Sub-material libraries can be established under each material category for further segmentation by brand, project, product line, customer, year, region or business department.
- Material files are still Babel file objects, with version, log, preview, download, share, move, copy, label, description, annotation and permission control.
- The API provides material library related interfaces, which can be used to automatically create categories, create sub-material libraries, or control whether users have material library access rights.

## Management entrance

| Capabilities | Description |
| --- | --- |
| Set user material library permissions | Control whether users have permission to access the material library through the management terminal or API |
| Create material classifications | Create enterprise-level material classifications, such as branding, marketing, design, engineering, and product images |
| Create a sub-material library | Continue to establish a business library under the category to facilitate authorization, operation and retrieval |
| File upload and organization | Supports web page, client, synchronization, drag and drop, right-click upload and batch organization |
| Waterfall browsing | Provide a list method that is more suitable for visual filtering of picture materials |
| Metadata and filtering | Combine tags, descriptions, file names, image metadata, advanced search and AI image search filtering |

## Permissions and Security

The Material Library should not be understood as a public library. It is still subject to corporate accounts, departments, projects, file access controls, sharing permissions, security policies and audit logs:

- Administrators can control which users have access to the library.
- Files in the material library can continue to set folder permissions, member permissions, validity period permissions and sharing permissions.
- When sharing materials externally, you can combine passwords, validity periods, download permissions, preview permissions, watermarks and sharing logs.
- For sensitive pictures, design drafts, drawings or customer materials, watermarks, download control, confidentiality levels, access logs and security audits can be combined.
- AI image search, image search, OCR or automatic labeling should only return results within the range of materials that the user has permission to access.

## Relationship with AI image search

The material library is naturally related to Zhichao AI’s text search, image search, image OCR, PDF image search and AI automatic tagging. For enterprises with a large number of pictures, irregular manual naming, and deep directory levels, the material library provides the basis for "storage and authorization", and AI image search provides the ability to "understand and search".

## Related APIs

- [Set whether the user has access to material library](api-post-nd-api-file-set-user-access-material-library.md)
- [Create material library class](api-post-nd-api-file-create-material-class.md)
- [Create sub-material folder](api-post-nd-api-file-create-material-folder.md)