We'd like to be able to have one published version of a job aid or user guide that can be pulled into courses and or curricula. We might be able to do this already by using the URL from the published resource inside of a course or curriculum rather than adding another copy of the file, however, I'm not certain if the URL of the resource is maintained if/when the resource is updated.
This would allow us to treat the resources more like a library and it would help avoid having duplicate (and possibly outdated) versions of PDFs and other materials. Currently, we have to maintain an inventory of our published materials OUTSIDE of the LMS so that we can better manage review cycles and updates.
Sorry - I just realised the issue with versioning. When a Global Resource is replaced (upload a new version of the file with the same name and in the same location), Absorb LMS does not overwrite the file, and gives it a new name - eg my_pdf(1).pdf but the Global Resource references the most recent version. I'm not sure how to generate a URL that references the most recent version - so I agree this functionality needs to be improved.
I think you could achieve this by adding your user guide file to the Global Resources, and then when adding the resource to a course, use the URL method to link to the Global Resource, rather than uploading it again. But be careful to make sure you set an availability rule to the Global Resource user guide, to make sure it's only visible to the users that you want to see it.