LPedia:Contributing Historical Documents

Preserving and presenting historical documents relating to the Libertarian Party is an important function of LPedia. We welcome the help of activists across the country in building this collection of documents. While the Historical Preservation Committee is currently focused on organizing volunteers to collect and present documents relating to the national LP, activists in each state are generally in a better position to do this for their own state, both because of their better understanding of the history of the LP in that state and because they are more likely to have access to the original material.

However, it is important that certain basic principles and practices be followed, in order to maximize the usefulness of the resulting collection. These principles and practices — including the question of what is a "historical document" in the first place — are discussed in general terms in the Manual of Style. If you haven't read at least that section yet, please do so now.

Here we present the same issues in another way, a sort of "how to" practical guide for the volunteers who are going to be doing this kind of work. We outline all the steps involved in actually adding an existing document to LPedia. And this presentation is organized by type of document, so that we can focus on the points that are most important for each type of document.

Anyone doing a significant amount of this type of work should still be familiar with everything discussed in the Manual of Style. And you will need to consult the Manual of Style for guidance if you find yourself wanting to add a document of a type that isn't covered here. In such a case, you will need to apply the general principles yourself. But if you are already familiar with the general ideas and just need a reminder of how they apply to one of the more common types of document, the outlines below will in many cases be sufficient.