This article covers everything you need to know about setting up and managing your Motivity libraries effectively. You'll learn the difference between libraries, templates, and programs; how to navigate the libraries available to your organization; and best practices for keeping your content organized, accessible, and scalable.

A well-structured library system is one of the most impactful things you can do for your clinical team. When libraries are set up thoughtfully, clinicians spend less time searching for resources and more time focusing on what they do best — supporting their clients.

Key Terms: Libraries, Templates, and Programs

These three terms are often confused, so let's clarify them upfront:

Libraries — Containers of ready-to-use programs and templates. Programs in a library can be assigned directly to learners or copied for customization.
Templates — Outlines or scaffolds of programs with placeholder structure. They are designed to be copied first and then filled in (e.g., Discrete Trial, Percent Correct, Task Analysis, or SBT templates).
Programs — Behavior or skills-based ABA protocols with pre-filled structure and starter content (e.g., goal descriptions, starter targets, mastery criteria). Programs are meant to serve as a jumping-off point for individualized instruction.

Standard Motivity Libraries

Every organization has access to the following libraries. Some are local to your organization, while featured libraries are curated by Motivity and shared across all organizations.

Library	Type	Description
Organization Program Library	Local	Your organization's own programs, created by your staff.
Practice Library	Local	A sandbox library for staff to build and test programs before moving them to production.
Templates Library	Local	Organization-specific templates derived from Motivity defaults.
Motivity School Library	Featured	Programs designed for school settings.
Template Library	Featured	Pre-designed ABA data collection and monitoring templates to streamline behavior and skill tracking.
VB-MAPP Skill Library	Featured	Supports practitioners in creating individualized programs based on VB-MAPP assessment results.
Academic Library	Featured	Programs focused on academic skill development across multiple domains.
Behavior Library	Featured	Programs for behavior reduction using functional analysis, reinforcement of alternative behaviors, and extinction procedures.
Cognitive Skills/Executive Functions Library	Featured	Programs targeting attention, memory, problem-solving, planning, and impulse control.
Communication Library	Featured	Programs to build receptive and expressive communication skills to promote independence.
Daily Living Skills Library	Featured	Life skills programs covering personal care, cooking, money management, and more.
Foundation Skills Library	Featured	Foundational programs targeting engagement, attention, and problem-solving.
Motor Skills Library	Featured	Fine, gross, and oral motor programs covering balance, strength, and coordination.
Social Skills Library	Featured	Resources for teaching social interaction, communication, and interpreting social cues.

Motivity Libraries vs. Organization Libraries

Motivity Libraries are organized collections of programs grouped by domain. Our featured library programs are skill-based teaching protocols grounded in applied behavior analysis (ABA), drawing skills from pivotal functional milestones identified across leading assessments — including the Vineland 3, ABLLS-R, and VB-MAPP. Each program template includes a baseline phase, a teaching phase, and a maintenance/generalization phase, with built-in measurement options such as rate, duration, percent correct, probes, and interval recording.

These programs are meant to serve as a starting point — they should always be individualized for each client or patient.

Organization Libraries are fully customizable libraries that give your team autonomy over the programs and content within them. Each library serves a distinct purpose (covered later in this article) and is designed to be a go-to resource for your clinicians. Together, they allow you to define your organization's teaching standards and apply them consistently across your general programming.

Searching Libraries

Finding the right program is easy with Motivity's search feature:

Navigate to and select the Program Template Libraries tab, or open a specific library's tab.
Click Find in the top-right corner to open the search bar.
Enter your search terms. Note that all words entered must be present in the result for it to appear — though they don't need to be in the same location or in a specific order.

💡 Tip: If you're not finding what you need, try searching with fewer or broader terms. For example, searching "stimulus" will return more results than searching "stimulus generalization."

Best Practices for Library Use

When you first join Motivity, you have access to three local libraries: the Template Library, the Practice Library, and the Organization Program Library. Here's how to make the most of each.

Designate a Library Curator

Before diving in, identify one or more people who will take ownership of curating your libraries. This person should be prepared to regularly review library content, keep it up to date, and support clinicians in using libraries correctly. Having a dedicated curator is the single most important step in maintaining a healthy library structure.

The Template Library

Who manages it: Your Motivity Clinical Guru
What it's for: Defining the structure of your programs and establishing your organization's standards — including prompt hierarchies, mastery criteria, maintenance schedules, and more.
How it's built: During onboarding, you and your Implementation Manager will work together to build out the templates your clinicians will use.
Best Practice: Restrict editing permissions to the Guru or Library Curator. Once your criteria are set, this library requires very little ongoing maintenance — you should only need to revisit it when making structural changes to your templates.

Here are the suggested permissions for your Guru or Library Curator so that they have appropriate access to this library.

The Practice Library

Who uses it: All clinicians
What it's for: A staging area and sandbox where Gurus, BCBAs, and other clinicians can practice building programs before assigning them to learners.
How it works: Clinicians copy templates from the Template Library or programs from the Organization Program Library, individualize them here, and then assign them to learners.
Best Practices:
- Access: All clinicians can have editing permissions, but they must be added to the library's team first. Building programs here rather than directly on a learner's profile is strongly recommended because:
  1. It's a safe space to make mistakes — nothing here affects a learner's active programs.
  2. Colleagues can view each other's work and collaborate more easily.
  3. Programs are easier to find and share without having to remember which learner dashboard a program lives on.
- Quantity: Maintain a single shared Practice Library rather than allowing each BCBA to create their own. Multiple individual libraries are difficult to manage long-term and limit collaboration.
- Workflow: When new BCBAs join, have a process in place to add them to the Practice Library team. Keep labels turned off in this library — your organization's labels should be defined in the Organization Program Library.

Here are the suggested permissions for your clinicians so that they have appropriate access to this library.

The Organization Program Library

Who manages it: Your designated Library Curator
What it's for: Your organization's master library, where all fully developed programs and curriculum live.
How it works: Build programs from your templates or copy them from the Practice Library or Motivity Libraries, then apply your organization's structure using global parameters. Clinicians can copy and assign programs from here to individual learners.
Best Practices:
- Access: Only the curator should have editing access. BCBAs can copy and assign programs but should not edit this library directly.
- Content Creation: Use your established templates and global parameters to build consistent, high-quality programs.
- Quantity: As your organization grows, consider creating additional Program Libraries organized by service line, curriculum, or service type.
- Review: The curator should review the library monthly to add or remove content as needed.
- Domains: Assign domains to each program to keep content organized and make report generation easier.
- Labels: BCBAs can apply labels on a learner's Programs and Progress tab to categorize programs (e.g., AM Only, Circle Time, NET). Labels are especially helpful if your libraries aren't separated by service line or curriculum.
Here are the suggested permissions for your Guru or Library Curator so that they have appropriate access to this library.

Summary

Motivity's three local libraries each serve a distinct purpose:

Template Library — The foundation of your programming. Build standardized templates with your Implementation Manager, restrict editing to your Guru or Curator, and revisit only when structural changes are needed.
Practice Library — A sandbox for all clinicians. Add new staff to the team, maintain a single shared library, and keep labels turned off.
Organization Program Library — Your master resource library. Restrict editing to your curator, review monthly, use domains to organize content, and consider expanding to multiple libraries as you grow.

A well-managed library structure saves clinicians time, promotes consistency, and makes it much easier to scale your programming over time.