About
Building This Library
America's School Trust Library now has a legal home of its own, and a board to answer for it. Oregon accepted its Articles of Incorporation on July 21, 2026, creating an Oregon nonprofit public benefit corporation (Registry No. 259005891). On August 3, 2026 the founding board was seated and adopted the Library's governing instruments by unanimous written consent. The federal tax-exemption application has been filed; no determination has been issued.
Why an independent institution
The Library grew out of Oregon Advocates for School Trust Lands, but a national library must be answerable to its readers and beneficiaries, not to a single lawsuit or founder. Independence protects the record, invites collaboration across institutional lines, and gives the Library a structure designed to outlive any one person, case, or political season.
What has been completed
- Oregon Department of Justice Charitable Activities Registration No. 72571 was completed July 10, 2026.
- Oregon accepted the Articles of Incorporation on July 21, 2026 (Registry No. 259005891).
- The corporation is a public benefit corporation with no members.
- The Articles contain the provisions required for a charitable, educational organization.
- The corporation obtained its federal Employer Identification Number on July 30, 2026 and opened its institutional records.
- The founding board was seated on August 3, 2026 and adopted the founding-board package by unanimous written consent: Bylaws, Version 7; the Constitution and Readers' Bill of Rights, Version 1; and a Conflict of Interest Policy, Version 2. All three are published in full, as adopted, on the governance page.
- On August 9, 2026 the board added Barry Shane as a director and accepted the withdrawal of Barbara K. Sullivan, who had served as founding treasurer. The current roster is on the About page; the full dated record of every filing and board action is the organizational record.
What comes next
- The Internal Revenue Service acts on the Library's filed application for recognition of exemption.
- The board grows toward the broader, independent governing body the Library needs for the long term. Two director seats are open now, and a Law Librarian seat authorized by the bylaws is open as well.
Seating a board and adopting its instruments settles what the corporation is; it does not settle what this site says. That is settled differently — not by a single vote but by the board working on the site and standing behind it, which it has done since August 3, 2026. The preview notices came off on August 12. What replaced them is not a claim that the Library is finished: it is a living edition, corrected in public under a numbered ledger, and the primary sources behind each page remain the thing to cite.
An open invitation
Readers, librarians, archivists, educators, trust professionals, and peer institutions are still invited to help shape the durable institution — the more so now that there is a board to receive the help. Two director seats and the Law Librarian seat are open; the ways to write to the Library about them, and the lighter ways to contribute, are on the Contribute page. Use the Submit Feedback control on this page, or begin with the contact paths on the About page. This page is not a fundraising solicitation, and the Library does not yet represent that contributions are federally tax deductible.
— Dave Sullivan, President, America's School Trust Library
Page last updated: 2026-08-12.
