Read the Observatory

Open the public Observatory and begin with the table rather than a headline total. Identify one measure you understand, its unit, and the source context displayed by the view.

Understand the columns

A target is not an observed fact. It expresses a reference or goal within the view. A percentage must be read with that target and the measure’s unit, not as the percentage of the whole language that has been preserved.

Use the area choices

The checked view groups material into Corpus and Linguistics, Books and Print, Adoption, Media and Content, Websites and Digital Resources, and Community and Culture. Select a relevant area to reduce the amount of unrelated information you are comparing.

Do not add counts across unlike measures and treat the sum as one quantity. A book, a recording, a percentage, and an event do not share a common unit merely because they appear in the same table.

Pay attention to Reference data

The public view can mark its source Reference. Preserve that label when describing the values. Interactive presentation and an updating interface are not by themselves evidence that every displayed row comes from a live, independently verified measurement.

If you need to know how a value was obtained, read the available methodology or ask about the specific measure. Retain the page and row rather than quoting a detached screenshot.

A useful comparison

Choose two rows that answer the same kind of question, or compare one row against its own stated target. Explain the comparison in words: what resource is being counted, what the target represents, and what remains unclear about coverage.

Continue to methodology for scores and sharing findings for a reproducible public note.