Access to system and user defined entities (objects, data items, or the like) is managed by a content manager. A privilege grants a user an ability to access system such controlled entities. An item is an atomic user data entity stored in the CM library server. A privileges table is used to store system and user defined privileges. A privilege is represented by a row in the table. Each privilege has a unique privilege code, with codes 0 to 999 reserved to store system-defined privileges and codes beyond 999 open for user-defined privileges thus allowing application specific privileges to be added without limit.