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[ZebioLizard2]

Considering that dwarves at this point can make their own cloths. It seems sort of silly to say writing on paper or papyrus is out of the question when we have dwarves that specifically make cloths and weaves.

[Fancy Admiral]

Are books made of cloth then, or would it be a seperate workshop or workshops responsible for it?

[thijser]

Slaughtering annimals and starting the series of chemical proccesses to make parchment sounds reasonable dwarfen.
Maybe we could even work with a whole diffrend system? I know some people made a system where they wrote with knots. Maybe the dwarfen version would be writing in metal? A totaly new system could be created for the dwarfs to show that DF is unique.

[Waparius]

Something I haven't seen in my quick look at the other writing threads - the Mountainhome could ask for copies of your records every year. This could tie in to the Caravan arc by having an effect on pricing - if the merchants know your fort's specialised in *kitten leather gloves* then they'll know to stop here before their trip to MandrillRoads, where Mayor Urist loves kitten leather and gloves. If you haven't sent the books, though, they're going to CatBlood, where the dwarves do nothing but farm cats.

I could also see you requesting books from caravans or even sending an agent when that gets sorted out to find out what's in demand in various places.

[Kat]

Beat metal bars into thin sheets.

Stamp/engrave/etch the important writing on them.

The written sheets can be bound into a larger book.

Lighter, more portable, and less space consuming than stone tablets.

[logismo]

They burn wood and write with the charcoal or soot. Or make their own ink.

[AngleWyrm]

Having trouble imagining dwarven writing? Start with blue prints.

[scout890]

instead of books how about a big room covered in engravings with information instead of circles and blood baths, cause thats what I picture dwarves reading. That, or stone tablets

[Kurouma]

Because I'm at a loss too about what angle to take with libraries, I think they should first be implemented as sites in worldgen, maybe as a vehicle for recording the legends, primarily by humans. Partly because of what Fancy Admiral suggests - the cultural dissonance of dwarfs having paper libraries (and the elves in my mind, they always seemed like more of a party bunch. Plus they're immortal, so they wouldn't really need records anyway). Also partly because that way we can have libraries existing and interacting with the world so we can test out/develop a meaningful game mechanic behind them first, before adding them to fortress mode straightaway, without having any definite plan with them beforehand.
I guess that means visiting libraries in Adv. Mode, both standing and ruined ones. They could probably be the main source of ancient knowledge of the location of sacred sites and artefacts, or locations of m.beasts for quests, and repositories of magical knowledge (if, when. You know). Maybe finding and retrieving lost scrolls from ruined libraries could be a future quest branch.

[Jake]

Something I've been considering for a while is the possibility of textbooks and instruction manuals. Writing an original text would require a dwarf of at least Master or higher skill in the relevant subject, but they could of course be copied once the original exists. (And while we're on the subject, movable type is well within the period; something else for the engraver to do?)
Initially they could just be used either in the relevant workshop to increase the speed at which a dwarf gains skill levels in the task at hand, or for jobs like architecture a 'reading room' workshop where dwarves could use them to make the transition between Dabbling and Novice before tackling an actual task. Eventually, once the new guild system is fleshed out a bit, we could transition to a training system not unlike that used by the military. I also like the idea of persistent architectural drawings that could be used to speed up construction of an identical item the second time around.