---
layout: default
title: Library
git: library.md
---
## Dashboard {#dashboard}
The Dashboard is divided into two sections a Library section divided between
Tracks, Playlists, Smart Blocks, Webstreams, and Podcasts, with the **Scheduled
Shows** dialog on the right. This page provides an overview of the right-hand
interface. Check the links to see information about the other sections which
provide the content that can be scheduled.
The **Scheduled Shows** page provides a view of the content your station is will
playout, or has already played out, which defaults to showing the 3 hours
ahead. This page also enables you to make last-minute changes to running shows.
If you've only just installed LibreTime, there might not be any content shown
yet. Click the calendar and clock icons above the table to change the date and
time range, then click the **Find Shows** button (with the magnifying glass
icon) to the right.
To display the content of a particular show, click **Filter by Show** and select
the name of the show from the drop-down menu which will appear.
On the left side of the page, the **Start** and **End** times, **Duration**
and **Title** of each content item are shown. On the right, **Creator**,
**Album**, **Cue** or **Fade** times and **Mime** type (file format) can also be
shown. This information can help you to prepare voice tracks for insertion into
the show, including time checks if you wish. Putting current time information i
to voice tracks describing specific content can, of course, limit the
re-usability of those voice tracks, unless you always broadcast a particular
item at the same time of day.
Click the **Show/hide columns** button on the right to configure the metadata
displayed, by checking the boxes in the pop-up window.
The row for the currently playing item is displayed with a bright green
background. Any underbooked shows (shows with insufficient content to fill the
time allowed) are displayed with a row indicating the length of the underbooking
in minutes and seconds. These rows contain a red exclamation mark in the first
column, and have a pink background.
### Removing content from a running show
If a show is overbooked, which means the total playout duration is longer than
the time allowed for the show, a brown row indicates that the item will be faded
out when the show ends. A red row indicates that the item will not be played at
all. The length of the overbooking is shown in minutes and seconds in the last
row of the show. To remove the extra items from the end of an overbooked show,
click the **Scissors** button at the top left of the table.
Alternatively, check the boxes for items which have not yet completed playout,
and click the **Trashcan** button, to the right of the Scissors, to remove them
from the schedule. If you remove the currently playing item, playout will skip
to the next item in the show automatically, so you should make sure you have
enough items remaining in the show to avoid dead air.
If you have a long schedule displayed, and you wish to skip to the currently
playing item, click the button with the end arrow icon, to the right of the
**Trashcan**.
To cancel the current show completely, click the red button to the right again.
A pop-up window will ask you to confirm the cancellation, as this action cannot
be undone.
Items which are no longer available have an exclamation mark icon in the second
column. This may happen for media files which were part of previous shows, and
were removed from LibreTime's library (main storage or watched folders)
subsequently. Items which are included in forthcoming shows cannot be removed
from the Library via the LibreTime interface.
### Adding content to a running show
After you have found the items that you want using the search tools, you can
then drag and drop them from the library table on the left side of the page into
the shows on the right side, including the current playing show.
If the current show has nothing playing out at the time, the new item will begin
playing immediately. This manual triggering of playout can be used as a live
assist technique, in which the LibreTime server's soundcard output is mixed with
other sources such as microphones or telephone hybrids on its way to a
transmitter, or a separate stream encoder. For instance, a live show's host may
not wish to cut off a studio discussion in order to play music at a fixed time.
You can also select multiple items using the **Select** menu button, just
beneath the simple search field, which has the options to **Select this page**
of search results, **Deselect this page** and **Deselect all**. Alternatively,
use the checkboxes on the left side of the library table to select specific
items. Then drag one of the items into the show to add all of the selected
items, or click the **Add to selected show** button, which has a plus icon. If
you wish, you can also use the **Trashcan** button to permanently remove items
from LibreTime's library. Only *admin* users have permission to delete all
items.
To insert checkbox selected items at a specific time in the show schedule, click
one of the songs in the schedule table. Then click the **Add to selected show**
button in the library table. This will insert the library songs after the
selected scheduled song.
To add a single item at the insertion point, double-click on it in the library.
There is no need to select or drag the item first.
Right-clicking on a song in the schedule table will show a pop-up. This pop-up
menu also enables you to audition the entire show in advance of playout, or
remove the item that was clicked on from the show.
Multiple insertion points can be enabled, so that the same item is inserted into
the schedule at different times. For example, you may wish to play a news report
every hour, or a station ident after every five music files.
---
## Playlists {#playlists}
### Creating a new playlist
You can create a new playlist on the toolbar of the **Playlists** page.
Enter a **Name** and **Description** for the playlist, then click the **Save** button. Setting good quality metadata here will help you find the playlist using the search box later, so you should be as descriptive as possible.
### Adding content to a playlist
With a playlist open, drag and drop items from the search results on the left into the playlist on the right. Jingles and voice tracks can be added before, after or between music items.
After adding files to the playlist, the total playlist time is displayed in the top right corner. The duration of an individual file is shown in each row of the playlist in a white font, and beneath this figure the time since the beginning of the playlist is displayed in a smaller light grey font. This elapsed time figure can be used as a time check for voice tracks, although this option may limit the re-usability of the voice track.
To audition a playlist file in your web browser, click the white triangle button on the left side of its row. (If the format of the file is not supported by your browser, the triangle in this button will be greyed out). If audition of the file format is supported, a pop-up window will open, with the playlist starting at the file you clicked.
Click the small white **x** icon on the right hand side of each row to remove a file from the playlist. You can also drag and drop files to re-order them, or click the **Shuffle** button to re-order files automatically.
When your playlist is complete, click the **New** button in the top left corner to create another playlist, click the close icon (a white cross in a black circle) in the top right corner, or browse to another page of the LibreTime interface.
If you want to edit the playlist content or metadata later, you can find it by **Title**, **Creator**, **Last Modified** date, **Length**, **Owner** or **Year** using one of the search tools on the Library page. Click the playlist in the search results list, and then click **Edit** from the pop-up menu. You can also **Preview** the entire playlist in a pop-up audition window, **Duplicate** or **Delete** one of your playlists from this menu.
## Smartblocks {#smartblocks}
### Creating a Smartblock
Smart blocks are automatically filled with media files from the LibreTime library, according to the criteria that you specify. This feature is intended to save staff time, compared to selecting items for a playlist manually, and can be used to schedule shows that operate in a consistent format.
To create a smart block, click the **Smartblocks** button on the left sidebar, and select **New** from the toolbar. Like a playlist, smart blocks can have a title and description, which you can edit. This helps you find relevant smart blocks in searches.
Fill out the smart block's **Name**, **Search Criteria**, and **Limit to** sections. The search criteria can be any one of LibreTime's metadata categories, such as **Title**, **Creator** or **Genre**. The modifier depends on whether the metadata in question contains letters or numbers. For example, **Title** has modifiers including *contains* and *starts with*, whereas the modifiers for **BPM** include *is greater than* and *is in the range*.
If you have a large number of files which meet the criteria that you specify, you may wish to limit the duration of the smart block using the **Limit to** field, so that it fits within the show you have in mind. Select **hours**, **minutes** or **items** from the drop-down menu, and click the **Generate** button again, if it is a static smart block. Then click the **Save** button.
> Note: Smart Blocks by default will never overflow the Time Limit. For instance if you set a time limit of 1 hour. It will add tracks to the schedule until it can't add any more tracks without exceeding the hour. This is to prevent tracks from being cut-off because they exceed the time limit of a show.
>
> If you want a smartblock to schedule tracks until it is longer than the Time Limit you can check "Allow last track to exceed time limit". This will make LibreTime add tracks that meet the criteria until it equals or is longer than the time limit. This is helpful for avoiding dead air on shows that are being autoscheduled.
You can also set the **smart block type**. A **Static** smart block will save the criteria and generate the block content immediately. This enables you to edit the contents of the block in the **Library** page before adding it to a show. A **Dynamic** smart block will only save the criteria, and the specific content will be generated at the time the block is added to a show. After that, the content of the show can be changed or re-ordered in the **Now Playing** page.
Click the **plus button** on the left to add OR criteria, such as **Creator** containing *beck* OR *jimi*. To add AND criteria, such as **Creator** containing *jimi* AND BPM in the range *120* to *130*, click the **plus button** on the right. (The criteria are not case sensitive). Click **Preview** to see the results.
> If you see the message *0 files meet the criteria*, it might mean that the files in the Library have not been tagged with the correct metadata. See the chapter [Preparing media](preparing-media) for tips on tagging content.
If you don't like the ordering which is generated, click the **Shuffle** button, or drag and drop the smart block contents into the order that you prefer. You can also remove items or add new items manually from the Library. Changes to static smart block contents are saved automatically when you add items, remove or re-order them, or click the **Generate** button. Click the **Save** button in the upper right corner to save any changes to smart block criteria.
By default, a smart block will not contain repeated items, which will limit the duration of the block if you do not have sufficient items meeting the specified criteria in your **Library**. To override the default behaviour, check the **Allow Repeat Tracks** box. The **Sort tracks by** menu offers the options of **random**, **newest** or **oldest** items first.
Smart blocks can be added to shows in the same way as a manually created playlist is added. Smart blocks can also be added to one or more playlists. In the case of a playlist containing a static smart block, click **Expand Static Block** to view the contents. For a dynamic smart block, you can review the criteria and duration limit by clicking **Expand Dynamic Block**.
Once created, smart blocks can be found under the Smartblocks tab and refined at any time. They can be re-opened by right-clicking on the smart block and selecting **Edit** from the pop-up menu.
---
## Podcasts {#podcasts}
The Podcasts page allows you add subscriptions to podcasts which are often used to syndicated audio files using a URL called a RSS feed. This allows your LibreTime instance to automatically download new shows from the web.
In order to add a podcast you need to get the RSS feed. All podcasts available on iTunes have a RSS feed but it is sometimes hidden. See this issue on our github page [#510](https://github.com/LibreTime/libretime/issues/510) for more information. RSS feeds that do not end in *.xml* may be accepted by LibreTime but might fail to download episodes; in that case, download the episode using a podcast client such as [gpodder](https://gpodder.github.io/) and then manually upload and schedule the episode. Podcast feeds coming from Anchor.fm have been known to have this issue.
The podcast interfaces provides you with the ability to generate [Smartblocks](smartblocks) that can be used in conjunction with [Autoloading Playlists](../calendar/#autoloading-playlist) to schedule the newest episode of a podcast without human intervention.
### Podcasts Dashboard
The podcasts dashboard is similar to the tracks view, allowing you to add, edit, and remove
podcasts by the toolbar, in addition to sorting by columns.
To add a podcast, click on the **+ Add** button on the toolbar and provide the podcast's RSS feed, which usually ends in *.xml*.
Once the podcast's feed is recognized, the editor pane opens for the podcast.
### Editor
In the podcasts editor, you can rename the podcast, update settings for the podcast, and manage episodes.
A search box is available to search for episodes within the feed.
- To import an episode directly into LibreTime, double-click on an episode or select it and click **+ Import**. The podcast will appear under tracks with the Podcast Name as the Album.
- To delete an episode from LibreTime, select the episode and click on the red trash can on the toolbar.
- If you would like LibreTime to automatically download the latest episodes of a podcast, make sure *Download latest episodes* is checked. This can be used in conjunction with Smartblocks and Playlists to automate downloading and scheduling shows that are received via podcast feed.
## Webstreams {#webstreams}
### Adding a webstream
A web stream URL and metadata can be added to the LibreTime library, so that a remote stream can be searched for and scheduled to be *pulled* into a show. For example, at the top of the hour your station may pull a news report from journalists working in another studio. This is a different concept from **Master Source** and **Show Source** remote streams which are *pushed* into the LibreTime playout schedule.
To add a web stream, click the **+ New** button on the left side of the Webstreams page. Like a playlist, web streams in the Library can have a title and **Description**, which may help you find them in searches later.
The **Stream URL** setting must include the *port number* (such as 8000) and *mount point* (such as remote\_stream) of the remote stream, in addition to the streaming server name. A **Default Length** for the remote stream can also be set. If the stream is added at the end of a show which becomes overbooked as a result, it will be faded out when the show ends.
Note: LibreTime checks the remote webstream's status upon editing stream settings, so an offline stream will result in an error. There are many tools such as [BUTT](https://danielnoethen.de/butt/) and [MIXXX](https://www.mixxx.org) that can be used to send a test stream to LibreTime can save it; read more [here](../live-shows-with-mixxx/index.md).