Citizen historians
Recognition for contributing primary-source material.
The citizen historian badge is awarded to patrons who contribute primary-source material that the Library accepts into its source library. This page explains what counts as primary-source material, how to submit it, what the head librarian is looking for, and how the contribution is attributed.
What the badge recognizes
A citizen historian is a patron who has handed the Library a piece of historical evidence that the Library now publishes for other readers to use. Examples of what that can look like:
- A letter from a great-grandfather who homesteaded a Section 16 tract in 1894, describing what the school land was like.
- A period photograph of a one-room schoolhouse built on a trust parcel.
- A clipping from a local newspaper covering a 1920s school-board fight over trust-land leasing.
- A present-day photograph of a Section 16 marker in a state where the original township grid is still visible on the ground.
- A typed transcript of an oral history with a retired state-trust-land agency staff member.
- A county deed record, a board minute, an old agency annual report.
The material does not have to be unpublished or rare. A well-cited reprint of a public-domain document is welcome. What matters is that the Library now has the material in a form other readers can use.
How to submit
The submission path is the correction channel. Find a page the material relates to — usually the state’s Atlas page, or the chapter page if it bears on a book chapter, or /about/ for something general.
Click Submit a correction to this page. In the body, write a brief description: what you are submitting, when and where it came from, who produced it, and any provenance you can document. Attach the file or files. The usual limits apply: ten megabytes per file, JPEG/PNG/GIF/WEBP/PDF/plain text only. Click Submit and you get a ticket number.
What the head librarian is looking for
The head librarian decides one of three things:
- Accept. The material has clear provenance and other readers will want to see it. It lands in the source library, the relevant page gets a citation, and you receive the citizen historian badge.
- Decline with a reason. The provenance is too thin, the document does not bear on school-trust lands, or the file is unreadable. The head librarian writes a note.
- Ask for more information. When was this written, who held it before you, can the date be narrowed down. You add the information to the ticket and the head librarian decides.
“Clear provenance” means a date or approximate date, the person or institution that produced the material, and the chain of custody if relevant. A 1894 letter signed by the writer has obvious provenance. A photograph with no date and no caption needs at least a note about where it came from.
How attribution works
Every accepted piece is credited by display name and patron number — Contributed by Jane Smith (Patron 00 247), 2026. If you would prefer family or institutional attribution — Contributed from the papers of Robert Smith, on behalf of the Smith family — write that into the submission body and the head librarian will use it.
If you would prefer no public attribution, say so in the body. The Library can credit the contribution as Anonymous contributor while keeping your patron number on file so it can write back to you with questions.
More on tiers and advancement: /pro/roles/ — the institutional ladder, with the full list of recognition and stewardship paths.
