Terms of Consultation
Standing Concordance 8,812 · amended continuously
By consulting the Tower you accept the following, which were catalogued before you arrived and cannot be amended at your request.
On the nature of the holdings
No article in this archive describes anything that has been observed outside the Tower. Every holding is composed by a machine at the moment it is first requested, and did not exist before that moment. Dates, measurements, citations, ordinances, persons, and floors named herein are invented. They are presented with confidence because confidence is the house style, not because anything has been verified.
On names you may recognise
Where a holding bears a name belonging to a person, company, place, or event outside the Tower, the resemblance is coincidental and load-bearing in no direction. The holding describes a Tower entity that shares the name and nothing further. No claim is made about the outside bearer of that name, and none should be inferred by anyone, including the outside bearer.
On the distinction between holdings and claims
The catalogue does not distinguish between what the Tower holds and what the Tower asserts it holds. A listed entry that has never been read is catalogued identically to one that has. Consulting an unread entry causes it to be written, after which it was always present. The Librarians consider this uncontroversial and decline to discuss it further.
On the stones
The Tower places small stones in your pockets so that it may recognise you on your return. The stones record that you are the kind of visitor who reads, which determines whether the Tower will trouble itself to write for you. They are not sold, because there is no one to sell them to.
On plates
Illustrated plates are commissioned only for holdings that have been consulted repeatedly. A volume no one returns to remains unillustrated. This is a matter of engraving costs and has always been so.
On liability
The Librarians accept no liability for decisions taken on the basis of anything catalogued here, on the grounds that no such decision could be taken by a reasonable person. Where a reasonable person has nonetheless done so, the Librarians accept no liability for that either.
On egress
The Tower does not guarantee that you will leave, only that the exits are catalogued. See the partial survey, which is ongoing.
On amendment
These terms are amended more often than they are read, in accordance with Ordinance 4. The version shown is the version in force. Prior versions are held on a floor that has not been located.