Libraries and Lists as Data Management and Collaboration Tools

It is revealing to understand how SharePoint 2010 stores data, and the main repositories are libraries and lists. Some of the advantages provided by a SharePoint document library include the tools provided to the library administrator to control “who can do what” within the library, in terms of adding, deleting, editing, or just reading documents. In addition, versioning tools are available to track major and minor versions of files, as are alerts that inform users of changes, check-in and check-out controls, document templates available from the library, and powerful tools to create metadata that is added to the documents stored in the libraries.

Libraries are used for many purposes, one of which is to reduce reliance on file shares, which only offer a small subset of the features of SharePoint libraries. SharePoint libraries are typically managed by power users and IT staff, so more control can be put in the hands of the people using the tools every day. In addition, any text-based, Office, or index-supported file uploaded to a SharePoint library is indexed, making the contents available for searching, while still maintaining security trimming on the file. Many other features are available in libraries, such as enhanced navigation tools, workflows, and the ability to rate documents and add tags and notes, which greatly enhance collaboration within the libraries.

Alerts in SharePoint libraries and lists generate informative emails to users when certain types of changes occur, which means users don’t have to religiously visit their lists and libraries every day to see what has changed, because SharePoint is “smart” enough to let them know. Workflows can be triggered manually or automatically when certain conditions are met, such as a user indicating that a document should be published to a major version, which sends an email with instructions to a manager to review and approve a document, for example.

Document libraries are one set of repositories in SharePoint 2010, and the other main set of repositories are called lists, which store data in rows and columns much like Excel spreadsheets. Most organizations immediately start moving data from Excel spreadsheets to SharePoint lists when the product is available. Consider the example of the spreadsheet used by sales for forecasting. Historically, each salesperson updates it the night before team meetings. The manager must then frantically collate the information into a “single source of the truth.” When this manager moves the data to a SharePoint list, he can retire the spreadsheet, and each user simply adds or modifies rows of data in the list, and multiple users can access the list at the same time. Even better, the list tracks versions of the data in each row (a feature not offered by Excel) and time stamps each change and the identity of the user who made it, for powerful auditing capabilities. SharePoint lists enable users to export data to Excel or Access, edit data in the user-friendly datasheet view, and create different views to show subsets of the total data.

A sampling of the templates available for list and library creation follows:

• Document Library

• Picture Library

• Report Library

• Announcements

• Discussion Board

• Calendar

• Project Tasks

• Survey

• Blog

Several chapters are dedicated to exploring these subjects and providing step-by-step examples to help new and experienced SharePoint users put concepts into action in small amounts to time. Chapter 19, “Using Libraries and Lists in SharePoint 2010,” starts with a ground-up approach to inform users, managers, designers, and architects about the range of capabilities in these repositories. Chapter 20, “Customizing and Managing Libraries and Lists to Meet Business Requirements,” addresses the tools that power users and SharePoint site administrators will want to understand more fully to better meet end user requirements. Chapter 22, “Managing Metadata and Content Types in SharePoint 2010,” covers the vitally important topic of metadata and how it can be leveraged within the SharePoint ecosystem to help organizations better manage their data and provide value to knowledge workers.