Polymyth CommonsSeminar Schools ↗

Sources · Checks · Corrections

How the directory is built and checked.

Every record begins with the source book. Present-day information is shown only when there is a dated source, and older information stays visible when a project moves, merges, or changes hands.

What Polymythlib covers

Polymythlib is a directory. It keeps names, links, short descriptions, book citations, present-day sources, and the history of corrections. The libraries and projects themselves continue to hold their own books, data, images, articles, tools, and records.

Polymythlib keeps

Links, descriptions, dates, alternate names, sources, topic groupings, and correction history.

Other projects keep

Their books, datasets, images, articles, tools, records, and other collection material.

Readers can add

Corrections, better links, official descriptions, and sources for present-day information.

A close example in the source book is EconPort, described as a searchable gateway to material held on other sites. See printed pages 340 to 345.

Book history, present-day checks, and directory choices stay separate.

What the book says

A short summary, chapter, printed page, role, and any link printed in the book.

What has been checked since

The current website, responsible organization, service status, supporting links, review date, and confidence.

How the directory organizes it

Topic groupings, browsing connections, editorial notes, proposed changes, and publication decisions.

What a record contains

Each public page identifies a project, explains how it appears in the book, and shows any present-day information that has been checked. Future additions can document changes over time without erasing the older record.

Kinds of records the directory may include

  • Projects such as libraries, archives, repositories, portals, journals, software commons, and public initiatives
  • Organizations such as universities, libraries, laboratories, nonprofits, agencies, publishers, museums, companies, and foundations
  • Networks such as federations, coalitions, associations, professional societies, and information communities
  • Standards and tools such as metadata rules, exchange protocols, APIs, identifiers, and interfaces
  • Policies such as licences, access rules, declarations, and self-archiving policies
  • Communities, subject areas, resource types, preservation services, and important changes over time

Details are kept separate

A project’s type, role in the book, place in the directory, current status, subject, location, audience, access, licence, governance, and preservation can change independently. Keeping them separate prevents one label from standing in for the whole project.

Terminology

Wording from the book remains in the cited source. Public pages use short summaries and ordinary labels, while the downloadable data preserves the original classifications for research and reuse.

Why “current status” needs more than one answer

A project, its website, its services, and its responsible organization can change in different ways. Polymythlib records those changes separately and shows the source, check date, and confidence. “Current status not yet reviewed” means only that the present-day research is unfinished; it does not erase the historical record.

How the directory grows

  1. 1 · Start with the bookRecord every printed link and named project, preserving spelling, page, chapter, role, and how it was described in 2007.
  2. 2 · Check the present dayFind the official current page and document moves, alternate names, successors, archives, sources, and the check date.
  3. 3 · Read official project pagesReview About, history, governance, host, partner, member, funder, project, technical, and preservation pages.
  4. 4 · Follow well-sourced connectionsConsider projects that official sources identify as partners, members, successors, predecessors, spinoffs, or related commons.
  5. 5 · Review organizations and networksUse official directories, member lists, implementation lists, preservation services, and program pages.
  6. 6 · Keep the historyDistinguish a project from its parent organization, software, and local installations; preserve old names, links, mergers, and transfers.
  7. 7 · RecheckReview links, redirects, present-day information, and unfinished records again.

What qualifies for a record

A new public record needs a direct source connecting it to the directory and should itself be a commons, library, directory, repository, archive, portal, journal, collaborative project, preservation network, learning commons, civic-information project, or shared knowledge system. A news item or individual document can support a record but does not become one by itself.

Connections need sources

Record pages suggest other entries with the same type in the book. Those suggestions are for browsing only; they do not claim that two projects worked together. A direct connection can be published when its source and check date are recorded.

The downloadable source-book index preserves 50 kinds of connection, including organizational, technical, preservation, historical, access, and governance relationships.

Browse connections described in the book

What the record signals mean

A record can show whether it has a current website, access information, licence, data service, contribution route, governance information, preservation link, and recent check date. “Included” and “Still needed” describe only what is documented on that page.

Topic collections explain why each record was included, so projects with different purposes can be browsed without pretending that one ranking fits them all.

Who reviews changes

Anyone can suggest a project, correction, broken link, or connection. A project representative can provide an official description and sources. An editor checks proposals before publication and keeps the final responsibility for what appears in the directory. Correction and revision history is intended to remain visible.

Suggest a change

Keeping records up to date

  • Regular link checks can flag redirects, failures, and security-certificate problems for review.
  • Human checks record their date, supporting sources, and confidence.
  • Downloadable CSV and JSON files keep version information and a changelog.
  • Old, successor, current, and archived links can coexist instead of replacing one another.
Download JSONAbout the downloadWhat changed

Sources behind this method

The starting point is Charlotte Hess and Elinor Ostrom, eds., Understanding Knowledge as a Commons. Especially relevant passages appear on printed pages 44 to 66, 145 to 163, 311 to 327, and 340 to 347.