Community

Roles

The Library is built around a community of contributors at varying levels of commitment. Some readers visit once and never come back. Some return weekly, send corrections, and write reviews. A small number take on responsibility for a state's pages, or for the editorial work that keeps the whole collection trustworthy. The tiers below describe how that community is structured today — what each role does, what is expected, and how a reader moves to the next rung when they are ready.

Reading and membership

Reader. Anyone who visits the Library is a Reader. No account is required. Readers can search the whole collection, browse the Atlas, follow the running ledgers in the Counting House, read the Newsroom, and open any source in the Reading Room. The Library is free to read and will stay that way.

Library Card holder. A free account opens a second set of doors. With a Library Card you can send feedback on any page, submit corrections that route to the editorial queue, take part in discussion threads, write reviews of books in the collection, and subscribe to particular pages or topics so the Library tells you when something changes. You also get a profile page; you can leave it private or make it public, your choice. Sign up at /auth/sign-up/. A Library Card is the on-ramp to every later tier — everything past Reader assumes you have one.

Contributing

Contributor. A Library Card holder becomes a Contributor the first time submitted material is accepted and integrated into the Library — a correction the editorial queue applies to a state page, a source the Library adds to a Reading Room shelf, a fact the Counting House had wrong and now has right. Contributors are named on the Contributors page, and their attribution appears on the pages they shaped. There is no separate application; the work itself is the application. Send corrections and source suggestions through the Submit Correction and Submit Feedback controls on any page.

Citizen Historian. A Citizen Historian is a recurring contributor of substantive material — original research, recovered primary sources, period newspaper material, family papers that put a contested fact on firmer ground. The threshold is three or more accepted substantive contributions over time, judged by the editorial staff. Citizen Historians wear a badge on their profile, appear in their own section of the Contributors page, and may attach a short biographical note that travels with their attribution. The progression is automatic — when the editorial queue logs the third accepted substantive contribution, the role is conferred and the contributor is notified. No application is required; the work brings the recognition.

State-level stewardship

State Expert. A State Expert is a named domain authority on one state's school trust record. State Experts are typically current or recent staff of State Departments of Lands, State Treasurers' offices, school-finance offices, state historical societies, or law schools — or retired educators, attorneys, and historians with comparable depth in the state's record. The role is by application and editorial review. State Experts validate the Library's coverage for their state, flag errors and omissions, supply primary sources the Library is missing, and review changes to that state's pages before the editorial staff publishes them. Where participation under a real name would be professionally costly, a verified pseudonym is available; the Library Board holds the verification confidentially. Applications are open now — write to the founding officer via the contact path at /about/ with a note about your background, the state you'd like to cover, and any current Library Card number you hold.

State Co-Librarian. A State Co-Librarian is the senior curator for one state's pages. Background is the same as State Expert, with the addition of a demonstrated willingness to take editorial responsibility — to own a state's records over time, not just consult on them. A State Co-Librarian owns that state's State Records page, its Counting House entry, and the state-specific source pages in the Reading Room. They validate every change before it goes live, supervise corrections, and carry the institutional memory of the state's trust into the Library's record. Vetting is by the founding officer. Applications are open now, at /apply/state-co-librarian/. The first formal sign-up venue is the NASTL conference in July 2026, but applications are welcome immediately; the conference is the occasion to meet candidates already in conversation, not a gate that opens then.

National stewardship

Co-Librarian. A Co-Librarian is a national-scope senior curator with cross-state authority on a doctrinal question or a topical specialty — trust-law doctrine, financial accounting and trust-fund mechanics, federal-policy history, the comparative record across multiple states. The role carries editorial authority across the whole collection on the curator's specialty. Seats are small in number. Recruitment today is by invitation, with an Express Interest path open to anyone who would like to be considered: /express-interest/co-librarian/ routes a short form directly to the founding officer.

Library Board member. A standing Library Board will provide editorial guidance, archival discipline, and the long view of how a library institution differs from an advocacy organization. The first cohort is expected to be three to five members, drawn from library science, archives, and digital-library infrastructure. Applications are not yet open. The trigger is funding: the first seat opens for public application once a staff-support line item is funded. Watch /updates/ for the announcement.

Editorial staff

Librarian. Librarians are the Library's editorial staff — paid or volunteer, depending on the seat. They review submissions in the queue, post responses, maintain pages, and handle the day-to-day editorial work the collection needs. Applications are open at /apply/librarian/. A Library Card is required to apply; the form takes a statement, relevant experience, and a time commitment.

Head Librarian. The Head Librarian is the senior editorial seat — the person responsible for the Library's editorial direction, the standards by which submissions are accepted, and the institutional posture of the collection. Dave Sullivan holds the role today. The seat will be filled by the Library Board once the Board is seated.

Discussion Moderator. Discussion Moderators steward the threads on Library Card holders' discussion pages and the per-page conversation areas. The role is filled by nomination and promotion from active community members; an open application path opens once the moderation load grows past what the founding officer can carry directly. Until then, write to the founding officer if you would like to be considered.

Attribution and recognition

Every contribution to the Library carries its contributor's name — or, where professional cost requires it, a verified pseudonym whose verification is held confidentially by the Library Board. Attribution travels with the work: a correction that improves a state page is credited on that page; a source recovered by a Citizen Historian carries the historian's name in the source's catalog record; a State Co-Librarian's stewardship is named at the foot of every page they curate. The Contributors page surfaces the whole community as it grows, with the tiers above as the structure. The Library's record is built by the people whose names appear on it.