Historic profiles
What a historic profile is, what it shows, who keeps it, and how to report an error in one
Some profiles on LibreTimes belong to people who can never sign in: the authors of the classics in the library, and scientists of the past. A historic profile is one of these, compiled from the historical record. It carries a small notice under the name, Historic profile — compiled from the historical record, which links here.
What counts as historic
A profile is historic when it has no account behind it and the person either:
- died more than twenty years ago, or
- is marked by LibreTimes staff as a figure of the historical record, with a reason.
Someone who died more recently keeps a plain record: their name, their works, and their affiliations as the works state them. A person with no recorded date of death is treated as living, and has no historic profile.
A historic profile cannot be claimed. Nobody alive can be the person it describes, so the page offers no "This is my profile" button.
What it shows
A historic profile has the same parts as anyone's profile:
- Personal Information: when and where the person was born and died. A date is given at the precision the record has — a year stays a year — and in the calendar it states. Isaac Newton was born on 25 December 1642 in the Julian calendar, and the page says so;
- Interests: the fields the person worked in;
- CV: the institutions they worked at, with their years where these are known;
- their works on LibreTimes.
The facts are compiled from public reference sources and checked by a person before they are published. There is no text about the person beyond these facts: no biography and no praise.
A photo appears only when it is free to reuse (public domain, or a Creative Commons licence that allows reuse). It is kept on LibreTimes, and its author and licence are credited in the notice under the name. Otherwise the page shows the person's initial.
Who keeps it
LibreTimes staff create historic profiles and correct them.
Reporting an error
If something is wrong:
- Select the words that are wrong on the profile page, if you like.
- Press Report an error, in the notice under the name.
- Choose what it is about, say what is wrong and what is right, and add a link to a page that shows it, if you have one.
- Send it.
You do not need to sign in. If you are signed out, nothing about you is kept with the report. Staff check each report before anything on the page changes.