Hello
In my role as SharePoint Instructor, one of the most commonly asked questions I get is ‘what criteria can I use to determine when I should create a new SharePoint library?’ Well.. great question! To answer this question, let’s take a look at some of the more common reasons for using SharePoint Libraries.

*Note- My numbering scheme isn’t indicative to an associated level of importance. It’s just a way to keep this list organized

#1 Efficiency of Access to the Data:

In ‘ancient times’ (you know, back when MOSS was just something green and soft crawling a up tree) we were forced to cubbyhole our files into disjointed directory structures, causing frustration and extra time spent when storing or accessing files. Heaven forbid if we’d want to do something ‘wild and crazy’ like view Meeting Agendas and the Meeting Notes at-the-same-time. Want to review the Project Plans, the related Marketing Materials and Customer Information all at once? Better prepare yourself for some serious mouse clicking as you navigate the tree structure.

But alas, MOSS has arrived! Now, instead of navigating through infinite folder structures, we can store more files ‘together’ by organizing them with metadata. ‘Does this mean’ you may ask ‘that I should take all of the files out on the network drive and dump them all in the same SharePoint library?’ ..well no, probably not. If we recognize that metadata (essentially descriptive labels) helps us to organize files, and that different types of files require different labels (i.e. you probably don’t need labels relating to ‘HR Policy’ available to tag your year-end financial analysis reports), we can start to recognize logical groupings of files. These logical groupings can serve as a guide to creating libraries. If we try to store non-related files into the same library, the number of metadata fields we need to fill-in, and create views for, increases. By grouping data into logical containers and applying ‘Views’ we can optimize efficient file access, allowing people quick access to related files, without overburdening them with too many fields to fill in, or too many View selections to scroll through.

#2 Save Time and Effort:

Workflows, workflows, workflows…. Workflows can help you save time and effort by doing ‘redundant, repetitive tasks that repeat themselves over and over’, for you. J Out of the box workflows can help you process and track (and send reminders for) approvals, the collection signatures or gathering of feedback. *Note if you are working in WSS 3.0, you’ll have available something called a Three-state workflow, which can do some of the same things, but will require a little more configuration. Workflows can be associated to a library, where they can be manually started or initiated with the creation of a new document. If you have files with related workflow needs, you may want to consider storing them in the same library. Note, if you have a need to use one workflow in different libraries, or even different sites, you can also associate it to a content type (but this topic is kind of out the scope of ‘when to create a new library).

#3 A Need to see What Once Was:

Versioning is an available Library Setting that can be configured to store ‘versions’ of each file. Ever have a need to see what was in the document before the last person changed it? Perhaps someone didn’t have enough coffee last Tuesday morning, and accidentally deleted half the document before they clicked the save button (it happens to the best of us). Turning on Versioning will allow you to view, or even restore previous editions of that file. However, these extra copies do take up disk space. If you need to be able to recover previous versions of some files, but not others, consider storing them in different libraries.

#4 Working in Draft:

Whether it’s a new HR policy, a corporate report or the daily lunch menu, when documents are viewed by larger groups of people, often you don’t want a half-baked version of it on display for everyone to read. Also contained in Versioning settings is an option to set up Draft copies, allowing you to configure who (by association of rights access) can view the in-progress file. So if you have collections of files that will be worked on by a few people, but read by many, consider using library groupings with this setting.

#5 Tracking:

Maybe you have a group of sensitive files, and it would be helpful to know how the documents were being used. In the Library Settings area, under ‘Information Management Policy Settings,’ you can define a policy that allows you to enable ‘Audit’ tracking of use events, such as file changes, copies or deletion.

#6 Cleaning House:

Also available as a Policy setting are settings for expiration, allowing for automatic deletion or review (through a workflow) of documents that have reached a specified age. As your environment matures, implementation of these disposition settings can save you a lot of time and effort trying to manually clean up hard disk space that is packed full. Using this feature at the library level allows you to deal with each grouping of files appropriately.

#7 Do you See What I See?:

Sally needs access to all of the financial reports for the organization, but Bill only needs access to those for his team. Permissions can be set at the Library level, allowing you to group files requiring the same permission settings. Within a library, you can actually apply permissions at the file level, though (because of the administrative overhead this usually causes) I don’t recommend it as a common practice. Note: You can’t create new groups at the library level, you can only add users and previously established groups (and it’s always a good idea to assign access to groups rather than directly to individual users). When granting permissions for a library, establish the groups at the site level, and then provide access to the group within the Library Settings.

#8 Time Sensitivity:

Notifications are a fantastic utility in SharePoint. No more wasting time checking the network drive to make sure that you have the most updated financial (or other) information. Use of SharePoint alerts will allow you to receive notifications when something has been added or changed. However, too many alerts can turn into noise and be ignored. Since alerts can be set at the library level, you can group documents according to how dynamic or time sensitive they are (i.e. I probably don’t need an instant alert to when the company dress code changes, but agenda changes for the morning meeting with my boss might be of interest). And yes, you can set alerts at the file level too, but if you are setting up lots of alerts for lots of different files, it’s just more work and more work doesn’t save time

Ok, so this isn’t by any means a complete list, but I hit some of the more common selection criteria. If you’re feeling adventurous and want to check out more options, take a look at the configuration listings in the Library Settings area. There are all kinds of goodies hidden in there.

In Review, those of you that have spent time using SharePoint know that it is very, very (did I say ‘very’) customizable. Applying a tool with this kind of flexibility invariably forces us to answer the question ‘what do we really want?’ The particular needs of the people using your site(s) and type of information being stored provide for different storage requirements. With consideration to those requirements and to SharePoint’s available enhancement features, you can set up library structures suitable to your location. How you do it is up to you

Janis Hall