Public collections in the KoboToolbox library

Last updated: 20 Mar 2026

Public collections allow KoboToolbox users to share and reuse predefined survey questions, question blocks, and full templates. When a collection is made public, it becomes available to all users on the same KoboToolbox server. Public collections may include commonly used questions or question groups, such as demographic characteristics or other standard indicators.

By making content public, users contribute to a shared library that helps standardize surveys and promote widely used measures across the Kobo community.

This article explains how to locate, use, and create public collections in the KoboToolbox library.

To learn more about the KoboToolbox library, see Using the KoboToolbox question library.

Accessing public collections

To access public collections from your KoboToolbox account:

  1. Click the Library icon in the left-side menu.

  2. Open the Public Collections tab.

Public collections tab

You will see a list of all public collections available on your server, as well as the collection owner, number of items, number of subscribers, available languages, primary sector, and date last modified.

Note: Public collections on the Global KoboToolbox Server and the European Union KoboToolbox Server may differ. Collections added to one server are only accessible from that same server.

To find a specific collection, you can browse the list, sort or filter the results, or use the search bar to enter keywords.

Creating a public collection

To create a public collection, you must first create a collection in your question library. From the question library:

  1. Click NEW and select Collection.

  2. Enter a name, short description, organization, primary sector, and country. These fields are required to make a collection public.

  3. Click Create.

  4. Add at least one asset from your library to the collection.

  5. Open the collection and click Make public.

Make collection public

To learn more about creating collections in your library, see Using the KoboToolbox question library.

Using public collections

To use assets from public collections in your own forms or projects, you can subscribe to collections, retrieve individual assets, or create new projects from public templates.

Subscribing to a public collection

Subscribing to a public collection adds it to My Library, allowing you to easily access and use its questions, blocks, or templates in your own forms.

To subscribe to a public collection:

  • Hover over the collection and click SUBSCRIBE on the right, or

  • Open the collection and click SUBSCRIBE in the detail view.

Subscribe to a public collection

To remove a collection from your library, click UNSUBSCRIBE.

Retrieving individual assets from a public collection

If you do not want to subscribe to an entire public collection but only need specific assets, you can clone or download them individually. To do so:

  1. Open the collection that contains the asset you are interested in.

  2. Hover over the asset.

  3. Click Clone to add it to your library, or select More actions to download it as an XLS or XML file.

Using questions from a public collection

After adding questions from a public collection to your library, either by subscribing to the collection or cloning individual assets, you can reuse them in future forms from the Formbuilder.

Note: Only questions that have been added to My Library can be inserted into your forms using the Formbuilder.

To use questions or question blocks from a public collection in your form:

  1. Open the KoboToolbox Formbuilder.

  2. Click Add from Library in the top right corner.

  3. Select the question or question block you want to add, then drag and drop it into the desired location in your form.

  4. If your question library contains many items, you can use the Search function to quickly locate the question or block you need.

Add question from library

Note: When you add a question from your question library to a form, any changes you make in the form will not affect the original version saved in the library.

Using templates from a public collection

You can also use a template from a public collection to create a new form project, either from your question library or from the Projects home page.

From the question library

You can create a project from a template in My Library if you have subscribed to the collection, or directly from Public Collections:

  1. Open the public collection.

  2. Hover over the template.

  3. Click Create project on the right.

  4. Enter a name for the new project.

Create a project from collection

Note: You can create a project from a template in a public collection even if you have not subscribed to the public collection.

From the Projects home page

You can also create a project from a public template directly from the Projects home page, provided you have subscribed to the collection:

  1. Click NEW and select Use a template.

  2. Choose a saved template and click Next.

  3. Enter the project details and click Create project.

In both cases, a new KoboToolbox project will be created that you can edit and deploy.

Note: Editing a project created from a template does not modify the original template.