1. A method of operation of a user device of a user comprising: joining, at the user device, a media sharing system including the user device of the user and one or more other user devices of a corresponding one or more other users such that one or more shared media collections of the one or more other users hosted by the one or more other user devices are available to the user; obtaining from a second user device of the one or more other user devices a collection digest that summarizes a shared media collection of the one or more shared media collections hosted by the second user device where the collection digest includes statistical information which includes a profile indicative of a number or percentage of media items in the shared media collection hosted by the second user device for each of a plurality of categories and information describing a historical availability of the shared media collection hosted by the second user device that identifies one or more time periods during the day during which the shared media collection hosted by the second user device has historically been available; and presenting the collection digest to the user at the user device.