Contribute · State-lands-agency staff
They are school lands.
States call them many different things — state trust lands, land grant trust lands, common school lands, permanent fund lands. The Library uses school trust lands as the umbrella term. Whatever your state calls them, they are school lands: set aside in 1785, and again in every state's enabling act since, for the maintenance of public schools. The phrase "state trust lands" — the term most agencies use today — has come to obscure that founding mandate. The state holds them in trust, on behalf of the public schools that were the beneficiaries the framers named.
You already know more about the records of these lands in your state than the Library's founders do. We are writing to invite you to contribute that knowledge in a way that confers real institutional standing without putting your job at risk.
The State Co-Librarian role
A State Co-Librarian curates their state's corner of the Library's State Records section. The operational task is concrete and bounded:
- Review the editorial summary on each period source already in your state's State Records corner; flag inaccuracies; submit corrections.
- Identify period sources in your state's archive that should be added — original enabling-act language, period audit reports, AG opinions on the trust corpus, state-superintendent reports from the high-water-mark era, reform-era statutes.
- Review your state's entry in the Atlas and the corresponding chapter in Schools of the Republic; flag inaccuracies.
- Receive and triage source suggestions submitted by Library Card holders in your state.
Approximately five to ten hours per month after an initial onboarding pass. Standing accrues. Commitment is bounded. Renewable annually.
Pseudonymity tier — for staff who cannot publicly identify
Standing without political risk
The Library does not require political alignment. It requires accuracy and good faith.
For staff whose participation under their real name could create employer or political conflict, the Library offers a pseudonymity tier. The verification process: you provide real name, agency, and contact information to the Library Board's verification committee, which holds those records confidentially. The public-facing State Co-Librarian designation — the byline, the role on the state's State Records corner — accrues to the pseudonym you choose. State-of-employment is listed only at the regional level (e.g., "Mountain West state-lands agency") rather than naming the specific state where doing so would identify the contributor.
Pseudonymous State Co-Librarians have the same operational role and the same institutional standing as named ones. The credit appears on the source pages you curate; the work is publicly attributable to the pseudonym; the Library protects the underlying identity.
This tier exists precisely because the Library cannot do its work without the practitioner-curators of these records, and many of those practitioners cannot participate openly. Please do not let the optics of public participation be a reason to decline a role you would otherwise take.
What the Library asks
We ask for accuracy, good faith, and a few hours a month. We do not ask for political alignment. We do not ask you to take a position on any active litigation, any pending audit, any policy dispute. We do not ask for materials your agency considers confidential or privileged. We ask, narrowly, for help making the public record of your state's school lands findable, contextualized, and accurate.
How to apply
Apply (Library Card · State Co-Librarian)
In the role field, select "State Co-Librarian / agency staff." Note your state and the name (or pseudonym) you wish to be credited under. The Library Board's verification committee will follow up within a week to complete verification and onboarding. If you have questions before signing up, you can write to the Library directly; your inquiry is confidential.
Curated by Library editorial team, 2026-05-07. The Library is grateful for the work the people who administer these lands do every day, and is built to make that work more visible to the country whose framers established it.
