Materials Library
Upload reusable school materials, recognize PDF pages on-demand for Ask AI, and share lessons via guest links.
Who this is for
Teachers and school teams who want to reuse their own texts, PDFs, images, and reference materials inside Locuto.PRO.
What this page answers
- What belongs in the Materials Library?
- How do I add PDFs and teaching materials?
- How does on-demand PDF page recognition work in Ask AI?
- How do I share materials with trial students via guest assignment links?
What the Materials Library is
The Materials Library is a shared school workspace for reusable teaching sources. Materials belong to your school, so teachers can build lessons from the same approved references without uploading the same file repeatedly.
Use it for:
- course book excerpts you are allowed to use
- school-owned worksheets
- placement-test source texts
- reading passages
- images for speaking prompts
- internal teaching notes
Only upload materials your school has the right to use. The library makes reuse easier; it does not change copyright or licensing responsibilities.
1. Open the library & School Image Assets
Go to Materials (/platform/materials) in the sidebar and open the External materials tab (?tab=library).
The page shows active materials by default. Use:
- Card Tap: Clicking or tapping anywhere on a material card opens the material directly, while the status badge and
⋯actions menu remain independently clickable on top. - Subject Filter: Filter materials by Teaching Subject (Language Learning or Mathematics) to isolate relevant source texts and math problem sets.
- Search & Metadata: Filter by language, CEFR or grade level, and uploader to find the right source.
- School Image Library: Browse and reuse approved school-wide images, diagrams, and cover artwork across lessons and unit banners without uploading duplicates.
2. Add a material
Click Add material. You can:
- drop a PDF (up to 25 MB) or image file (up to 15 MB)
- click to browse for a PDF or image
- paste plain text or Markdown into the dialog
Add a title if the automatic title would not be clear for other teachers.
File Size Limits and Password-Protected PDFs
- Upload limits: PDFs up to 25 MB can be uploaded to your school library (images and audio files remain up to 15 MB).
- Owner-password PDFs supported: PDFs with print or copy restrictions that still open without entering a password (owner-password protected) are accepted and unlocked automatically for page viewing, lesson embedding, and AI page recognition.
- User-password PDFs: Documents that require entering a password just to open or view cannot be processed and will be rejected ("This PDF needs a password to open. Upload a PDF that opens without a password."). Remove the open password before uploading.
3. Immediate storage and preview
Uploading a PDF stores the original file for instant preview and reads its page count immediately. The platform does not run whole-document OCR or charge credits upfront.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Ready | File uploaded and stored for preview, lesson embedding, and on-demand AI recognition. |
| Processing | Text or metadata is being prepared. |
| Failed | Upload could not be completed; review the error and upload again. |
4. Review the material detail page
Click or tap anywhere on a material card to open it (the status badge and ⋯ actions menu stay independently clickable on top). Open a material to inspect:
- source type and status
- page count and document preview
- recognized text for previously converted pages
- school-wide reuse indicators
The library is paginated. Use the footer controls to move between pages or change how many materials are shown per page.
5. Use materials with Ask AI & PDF Page Recognition
When you want to use a library PDF to generate curriculum content in the Lex Editor, the platform recognizes pages on-demand:
On-demand PDF Page Recognition
- In the Lex Editor, open the Ask AI side panel and click Attach material.
- Select your library PDF to open the two-pane page picker, displaying thumbnail previews alongside full-page views.
- Select the exact pages you need for your prompt (attach up to 20 pages across PDFs).
- Recognition pricing:
- 5 AI credits per newly recognized page: The platform runs text recognition only on the specific pages you select.
- Free reuse for saved pages: Once a page has been recognized by anyone in your school, it is saved. Reusing saved pages in future Ask AI prompts is 100% free and costs zero credits across your entire school.
Ask AI can use attached pages to:
- summarize a source for a specific CEFR level
- transform textbook chapters into interactive reading lessons
- generate comprehension quizzes and vocabulary tables
- extract grammar rules and contextual examples
- build discussion questions from diagrams or illustrations
Put a library PDF straight into a lesson
A PDF stored in the library can also be inserted directly into a lesson document as an interactive PDF block without re-uploading the file. See PDF documents for page selection, annotation, and presenting during live sessions.
6. Assign to a guest by link
From any library material or course lesson, click the row menu and select Assign to a guest by link:
- 30-day free access: Generates a shareable URL giving an external or trial student a 30-day window to complete the lesson, homework, or exercise without requiring an account or school enrollment.
- Library Guest Room: For live lessons, the link launches an independent live classroom room separate from the teacher's personal Instant Lesson room, perfect for drop-in consultations and placement trials.
7. Clean up old materials
Move unused materials to trash when you do not want teachers to pick them accidentally. Open the trash view to restore them if they are needed again. Use permanent delete only when the material should be removed from the school library completely.