The proliferation of digital English learning resources has raised growing concerns about their ineffective aid, a problem rooted in the poor alignment between library resources and learners’ demand. This study proposes the approach of collaborative construction based on a smart learning community to solve this problem. Usage feedback shows that, by using the co-built digital learning resource library, students exhibit positive changes in motivation, access frequency, learning experience, and learning outcomes, demonstrating that the self-built library has significantly enhanced resource suitability. The collaborative construction of a resource library based on a smart learning community serves as an empirical reference for resource development and optimization in the digital era.