Roles & access

SlideSource Library has a small set of roles. Most people are simply users who see and do what they’ve been granted and assigned; a few people administer the library or a single collection. This page explains each role in plain terms.

Note

There is no single “role” dropdown to pick from. In practice a person’s role is the sum of what they’ve been granted and assigned — usually through the groups they belong to — collection by collection. The role names below are a shorthand for common bundles of access.

The roles

User

A user is anyone with access to the library. Users see and do only what they’ve been granted permissions for, and access is set per collection. Depending on permissions, a user can:

• View and Download content,
• and, where allowed, create, edit, move, delete, or approve content.

A user who has been granted nothing in a collection won’t see that collection at all. Most people in your organization are users.

Approver

An approver is a user who has additionally been granted Approve permissions on content. Approvers work the Review queue — the list of slide versions awaiting review — and Approve or Reject each one. “Approver” isn’t a separate account type; it’s the Approve capability layered onto a user. See Approvals.

Collection (Local) Admin

A collection admin is a user granted admin rights on a single collection. Within that one collection they can assign users and set permissions, but they have no library-wide powers — they can’t invite new users to the library, manage groups, or change library settings. This is the right role for a person who runs one collection without needing the keys to the whole library.

Library Admin

A library admin can manage everything except billing and deleting the library. A library admin works with their existing library only — admins do not create other libraries. Within that library, an admin can:

• build collections and folders,
• invite and manage users, and set permissions,
• define the taxonomy (custom fields and tags),
• configure approval / governance,
• customize the landing page,
• manage email templates, and
• set up integrations.

Library Owner

The library owner is the super-user of the library. The owner can do everything a library admin can, plus the two things reserved for the owner alone:

• manage billing / subscription, and
• delete the library.

Caution

Deleting the library and changing the subscription are owner-only actions. A library admin has every other administrative power but cannot do these two.

Site-level administration

Behind the scenes, SlideSource operates a site-level administrator role used for provisioning and platform operations. This is separate from your library’s day-to-day roles above — you won’t manage it, and it isn’t part of the user, admin, or owner access you assign.

Note

If you ever run into something you can’t resolve in your own role, contact your SlideSource administrator for help.

How access is granted

Permissions are granted per collection, and the maintainable way to do that is through groups: you put users into groups, and grant each group its access to each collection. A person’s effective access is the combination of the groups they belong to and any direct per-collection grants. For the full model and every capability, see the links below.

Related

Permissions matrixEvery capability, role by role, at a glance.

Users, groups & permissionsThe full permission model — groups, permissions, and grants.

Signing in & joining a libraryHow people get into the library in the first place.

Onboard users & permissionsThe step-by-step for granting access.