School of Knowledge Systems

How Libraries, Shelves, and Books Relate

Quarex uses a three-level hierarchy to organize all content: Library → Shelf → Book. This structure means every book has a precise location, and that location is part of its meaning. Where a book lives tells you what kind of knowledge it contains.

The Hierarchy

Here is the actual path to the Sojourner Truth biography in Quarex, from the broadest category down to the individual book:

Knowledge Libraries Library Type
Biographies Library
Political Biographies Shelf
Sojourner Truth Book
URL Path quarex.org/libraries/k/biographies/political-biographies/sojourner-truth

The k in the URL stands for Knowledge Libraries. Each library type has a short code:

Seven Library Types

Every book in Quarex belongs to exactly one of these seven library types. The library type determines the fundamental character of the knowledge it contains.

Knowledge Sciences, arts, philosophy, biographies, AI, personal development. Objective knowledge across disciplines. /k/
Perspectives How groups see the world — ideological, cultural, historical, geopolitical viewpoints. Multiple legitimate views. /pe/
Geography Every country and territory on Earth, organized by continent. What a place is, not what you think about it. /g/
Infrastructure Energy, transportation, communications, social systems. The physical and institutional structures that sustain civilization. /i/
Politician Every US congressperson, senator, and governor. Structured for civic research and accountability. /po/
Practical Real-world skills: cooking, home repair, personal finance, digital safety. Knowledge you use daily. /pr/
Questions Meta-level questions about civic engagement and the system itself. The library that reflects on the library. /q/

Inside a Library: Knowledge Libraries

Each library type contains multiple libraries, and each library contains shelves. Here is the actual structure of the Knowledge Libraries:

Inside a Shelf: Political Biographies

The Political Biographies shelf within the Biographies library currently contains these four books:

The shelf itself becomes meaningful. These four people share a shelf not by accident but by design — they are all figures whose lives intersect with American political power. The proximity is the argument.

Why Placement Matters

Location Is Context

A book about racism placed in Knowledge Libraries → History and Anthropology is framed as historical scholarship. The same topic placed in Perspectives Libraries → Historical Narratives → Racism is framed as one perspective among many. Where a book lives shapes how it is understood.

Geography Is Not Opinion

The Geography Libraries contain a book for every country on Earth. These books describe what a country is — its geography, demographics, economy, and governance. They do not argue what you should think about it. That distinction is structural: geography goes in Geography Libraries, opinions go in Perspectives Libraries.

The Hierarchy Is the Curriculum

When a learner navigates from Knowledge Libraries → Biographies → Political Biographies → Sojourner Truth, they have already learned something before opening a single chapter: that this person is categorized as a political figure, that she sits among other political biographies, and that this is knowledge (not perspective or opinion). The hierarchy teaches.

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