Stewardship Standards Standards make stewardship accountable.
The public standard
Enduring commitments become credible through visible practice.
The Charter states the Institute's enduring commitments. Its standards translate those commitments into practices that can be followed, examined, corrected, and revised.
These standards govern the Institute's own acts of stewardship. They do not prescribe what Fellows, authors, readers, or collaborators must believe.
01 · Library stewardship
Admission is a reasoned and reviewable act.
Library stewardship governs admission, classification, source identification, review, restriction, and removal. It explains what inclusion means and records why a work was admitted.
Admission record
The record identifies the work, the source state considered, why it remains worthy of sustained inquiry, and any material rights, access, or use restrictions.
Meaning of inclusion
Admission recognizes continuing intellectual, historical, evidentiary, or interpretive value. It is not endorsement of every claim within a work.
Continuing review
A work may be corrected, reclassified, supplemented, restricted, superseded, or removed. Material changes remain traceable rather than silently rewriting the record.
02 · Source and record integrity
Access must not erase the original witness.
Source and record integrity governs original witnesses, editions, facsimiles, OCR, transcription, translation, AI interpretation, provenance, rights, corrections, and version history.
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02.1
Identify the witness
Name the original artifact, edition, recording, or source state whose material and contextual evidence matters.
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02.2
Distinguish derivatives
Facsimiles, OCR, cleaned text, translations, adaptations, summaries, and AI interpretations must not be presented as the source itself.
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02.3
Preserve provenance
Keep the source, supplier, date, ingestion method, transformations, permissions, restrictions, and responsible version identifiable.
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02.4
Make correction traceable
Material corrections create new versions. Earlier evidence is not silently overwritten or made impossible to examine.
Extend access. Preserve the witness.
Read the Charter03 · Fellowship appointment
Appointment must be accepted, independent, and recorded.
Fellowship appointment governs nomination, review, acceptance, independence, appointment records, participation, appointment identity, and permissions relating to a Fellow's work.
Acceptance
Appointment becomes effective only after acceptance. A person who did not accept is not described as an M Fellow.
Independence
A Fellow remains independent in thought, work, and judgment. Appointment does not require endorsement of the Institute.
Relationship
Appointment is for life and participation is voluntary. It does not itself create employment, governance authority, or fiduciary duty.
Rights and permissions
Fellowship does not transfer ownership of a person's work, archive, name, or likeness. Necessary rights or permissions remain required.
The Institute
Makes the appointment.
Formal Seal of The M Institute
Authenticates the Instrument of Appointment.
The Instrument
Records the accepted lifetime appointment.
M Fellow Mark of Appointment
Identifies the appointment publicly.
04 · Independence and transparency
Support must never purchase intellectual control.
Independence and transparency governs material support, conflicts, institutional positions, disclosures, corrections, editorial or research independence, and responsible use of AI.
Support and conflicts
Financial or in-kind support does not confer authority over Library selection, research findings, Fellow appointments, Protocol standards, or published conclusions. Material support and conflicts are disclosed when they bear on public understanding.
Institutional positions
The Institute may state positions about its own purpose, standards, admissions, methods, and responsibilities. It does not require Fellows, authors, readers, or collaborators to adopt a common political or intellectual view.
Correction and disclosure
Errors are corrected visibly. Significant corrections state what changed and why, while preserving the existence of prior versions when doing so is lawful and proportionate.
Responsible use of AI
AI-supported research, interpretation, or publishing remains subject to source identification, appropriate disclosure, review, correction, and accountable human judgment.
The Institute governs its own acts of stewardship. It does not prescribe what others must believe.
Adoption and revision
A standard must show when it governs and how it changes.
A supporting standard becomes governing only when it is formally adopted under the Institute's actual authority, assigned an effective date, and entered into the public record.
Each new edition preserves prior versions and explains material changes. Correction strengthens the record; it does not erase institutional memory.
- 01 Adoption status Draft, adopted, superseded, or withdrawn.
- 02 Responsible authority The actual body or role responsible for adoption.
- 03 Effective date When the standard began to govern Institute practice.
- 04 Version and change record Current and prior versions with material changes explained.
Until a supporting standard is formally adopted and entered here, the Charter remains the Institute's controlling public statement on that subject.