Library Entry Shape

Library entries describe bibliographic items — books, papers, podcasts, articles, videos, courses, posts. The shape is unified across all types; a type: discriminator handles per-type fields.

When to add a library entry

Add a library item when it should be available to cite, recommend, or feature on the site. The rule is in the repo = has a serial: every item in library/ carries an l-##### serial assigned at the moment it's promoted from any external shelf into the repo. Items kept externally but not yet promoted do not have a serial.

The library/INDEX.md file is the registry of assigned serials. Pick the next unused one when adding a new entry, then update the index.

Type discriminator

type: book | paper | podcast-episode | article | post | video | course

The type determines which subset of bibliographic fields is meaningful. A paper carries journal, volume, issue, doi; a book carries publisher, isbn, edition; a podcast-episode carries podcast, episode-number, host; etc.

Role flags

Two universal flags describe the item's role within the project:

  • is-cited: true — the item appears as a source on at least one observation, insight, or other research artifact.
  • is-featured: true — the item is promoted on the public library page as recommended reading.

Both, either, or neither can be true. The role is independent of whether the item has a serial (every repo entry has one).

Authors and publishers

  • authors: references slugs in people/ (bare slugs in the array; the people/ prefix is implicit).
  • publisher: references a slug in library/publishers/.
  • publication: references a slug in library/publications/ (the journal, podcast, magazine, etc.).

People, publishers, and publications are themselves first-class entries — they have their own pages and can backlink to every library item that references them.

Minimum frontmatter

---
slug: <lastname-headline-words>
serial: l-#####
status: active
stage: published
type: paper
title: <full title>
authors: [<person-slug>]
publication-date: <YYYY-MM-DD>
publication: <publication-slug>
publisher: <publisher-slug>
is-cited: false
is-featured: false
created: <YYYY-MM-DD>
updated: <YYYY-MM-DD>
---

Body conventions

The body is for human-readable summary, key claims, relevance to Co-Goods, and quoted excerpts where useful. Wikilink to other library items, people, and topics where the connections matter.