Media library
Also known as: footage library, clip catalogue
An organised store sitting between loose files and an edit, with clips catalogued by date, camera and place rather than piled in folders.
Updated
What it means
A library is a catalogue rather than a folder. The files sit wherever they sit, and something separate knows what each one is, which is the difference between storage and being able to find anything.
What it holds beyond location is the useful part. Date, camera, session, sport and any marks made during review, all of which are questions a folder structure cannot answer however tidily it is arranged.
It is the step up from a Camera roll, which is organised only by when things arrived. One is a stream and the other is something that can be searched deliberately.
How it works in practice
A folder structure comes first and still matters. Dates and sessions on disk with a File naming convention applied is the foundation, and the library adds to that rather than replacing it.
Tagging at review is when it happens. Marking the good clips while watching the card once is the only moment anybody will do it, and a catalogue built later never gets built.
Editing applications include one. Premiere bins, Final Cut keywords and Resolve media pools are all this, and using the one in the application beats maintaining a separate system alongside it.
What to watch out for
A library that points at moved files is broken. Reorganising a drive afterwards turns every entry into Offline media, and relinking a catalogue is considerably more work than relinking a project.
It is only as good as the discipline behind it. A half-tagged library is worse than none, because searching it produces an answer that looks complete and is missing most of the material.
It is not a backup. A catalogue of files that exist in one place is a very well organised single point of failure, which is what a Footage backup exists to address.
How RawClip handles it
Uploading reads whichever files are selected, so a library is a convenience for the person choosing rather than something the analysis needs. Where sessions are catalogued, picking one day to upload is a single operation instead of a search through a drive.