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[Halnoth]

Hello Everyone,

I am currently playing around with libraries. I made a test fort with 14 scholars and 10 scribes. I have 100s of scrolls and codexes. So, here is my impression of the two, and other library information.

Scrolls are easier to make by far since you don't have to wait for a dwarf to write on a quire to bind the book.

Scrolls are worth about 30% less than codexes.

Codexes are listed seperately in the stocks screen which makes them much easier to track because you don't have to expand the view to count how many scrolls have been written on. Scrolls both written and unwritten are listed as tools and are lumped together in the stocks screen.

However, in the stocks screen, the jobs list, and v; copies of codexes are described as codex with a quality modifer. For example *green glass codex*. On the other hand copies of scrolls are described with the title of the work. This is nice if you just want to see the subject of the material the dwarf is reading instead of looking at the detailed description. Original codexes are displayed with the title.

The best way to get a library off the ground is to have at least one of your starting 7 have at least a 3 in teacher, a 2 in student, and then a 1 in 5 other subjects (I chose health stuff). This causes the dwarf to take on your other scholars as students later.

I set up a basic library by mid summer when the first migrant wave came. I did not add more scholars until summer of the second year. I allowed everyone entrance to the library so I could get visiting scholars.

Edit: Wordsmith seems to affect new books being written while writer seems to affect the speed of scribing. Scribes use the student or reader skill to copy books. My scribes have made 100s of copies and NONE of them have writer or wordsmith skill. They all have high skill in reader and student. My hunch is that they use the student skill.

All 14 of my scholars have written about 75 books a piece. They all have high levels of the writer skill (at least proficient). However, they have only dabbling or novice wordsmith skill. This leads me to conclude that the writer skill is what effects books and prose. My hypothesis is that the wordsmith skill is not related to book writing directly but is in fact associated with a knowledge category, perhaps philosophy (grammar, poems, etc).

Additionally, it would appear that dwarves do not gain skill by reading a book until their student/reader skill is higher. I have roughly 1100 books in my fort and only my scholars have greater than novice in any one academic skill. This is because they discuss things, ponder, etc. I am not sure at what point dwarves begin to accrue skill through reading.

Dwarves will get unhappy thoughts as scholars if they don't like intellectual stuff, conflict, reading, talking to people, or the particular subject being discussed. The biggest source of unhappy thoughts is when dwarves are discussing. I think the game treats this as a low level conflict. However, I found that the unhappy thoughts are mild and with enough alcohol  and other sources of good thoughts don't matter.

A typical scholar will write a book every other season. Because of this I have more scholars than scribes.

You will have to remove your doctors from being scholars when medical stuff needs doing as dwarves can easily spend a season discussing a topic.

You should have 3 unwritten scrolls or quires per scribe or scholar to facilitate writing. You should have enough tables and chairs for about 20% of your population since dwarves will eat and read there. Bookcases; it appeared to me that dwarves will only copy and read books that are in the library or at least being in the library increases the odds.

Discussion of engineering appears to give dwarves mechanics as the highest moodable skill. I am not sure if it increases the mechanic skill or if the engineering skill just counts toward mechanics for moods.

Visitors will sometimes walk off with books but they write way more books than they steal.

I hope this helps and is informative. I will update as I find out more.

[martinuzz]

Good work! Keep up the !!SCIENCE!!

So far, I've noticed dwarves gain the following practical skills from reading books:

- diagnostician
- wound dresser
- suturer
- surgeon
- pump operator (lol, not kidding. Best guess is that books about fluid dynamics increase that. Or screw that. Probably screws)

[Iamblichos]

Yes, there is also something odd about the count of written items available on the (l)ocations tab for the library... I have noticed my written materials on hand going from 80 to about 58 in the course of one season.  Not sure if people are just stealing THAT many books, or if the count is off.  Either way, it's highly annoying.

[Halnoth]

Edit made to the main post;

Scribes use the student or reader skill to copy books. My scribes have made 100s of copies and NONE of them have writer or wordsmith skill. They all have high skill in reader and student. My hunch is that they use the student skill.

All 14 of my scholars have written about 75 books a piece. They all have high levels of the writer skill (at least proficient). However, they have only dabbling or novice wordsmith skill. This leads me to conclude that the writer skill is what effects books and prose. My hypothesis is that the wordsmith skill is not related to book writing directly but is in fact associated with a knowledge category, perhaps philosophy (grammar, poems, etc).

Additionally, it would appear that dwarves do not gain skill by reading a book until their student/reader skill is higher. I have roughly 1100 books in my fort and only my scholars have greater than novice in any one academic skill. This is because they discuss things, ponder, etc. I am not sure at what point dwarves begin to accrue skill through reading.

[Kuschelflummi]

Wordsmith would make the most sense for artist.
Maybe it is important for artistic works and books?

[Rince Wind]

That is my thought as well, probably used for lyrics and prose.

[TheHossofMoss]

Hmm... it seems my problem is that all my librarians do is copy books/scrolls, not write any of their own. My number of scribes vs. scholars is pretty even (3:3). Should I have more scholars?

[Deboche]

Thanks for the science. This really makes the whole library business less daunting.

I make quires and scrolls on repeat pretty much and it never seems to be enough. The materials never seem to accumulate.

[Kuschelflummi]

Thanks for the science. This really makes the whole library business less daunting.

I make quires and scrolls on repeat pretty much and it never seems to be enough. The materials never seem to accumulate.

Hmm.. maybe you need more coffers to store them in?

[Immortal-D]

Post to watch, this is extremely useful !SCIENCE!.

[martinuzz]

I'll be trying out a citizen only library now, hoping to keep book spam down to overseeable levels. I hear there's a rumor that those tons of visitor written books slow down the rate of moods.

Off to a good start. Just opened my library, and the very first thing written there is a scroll, by my expedition leader / head scholar. "Understanding the Mountainhome". It concerns the settling of my expedition leader in my fort. "The writing is completely surious, yet it is quite self-indulgent". Very symbolic first writing.

[timotheos]

Scholarly work seems to beat trading. I've had 3 caravans since I assigned my broker as a scholar and he only made it to 2 of them after the about to leave message appeared and the third I had to let someone else do it. Each time he had changed his topic and type of work at least once and I also caught him going off to eat and sleep and still going back to study before trading.

[Halnoth]

Hmm... it seems my problem is that all my librarians do is copy books/scrolls, not write any of their own. My number of scribes vs. scholars is pretty even (3:3). Should I have more scholars?

Ya you should have more scholars than scribes. Something like 2:1 seems to work well.

[Halnoth]

Scholarly work seems to beat trading. I've had 3 caravans since I assigned my broker as a scholar and he only made it to 2 of them after the about to leave message appeared and the third I had to let someone else do it. Each time he had changed his topic and type of work at least once and I also caught him going off to eat and sleep and still going back to study before trading.

Scholarly work beats out everything, even jobs given !priority!. You have to unassign dwarves from the library that you want to actually do something. This is because scholarly work is always purple and never green. Purple activities dont stop for jobs while green ones do.

[Deboche]

Thanks for the science. This really makes the whole library business less daunting.

I make quires and scrolls on repeat pretty much and it never seems to be enough. The materials never seem to accumulate.

Hmm.. maybe you need more coffers to store them in?

I doubt it. I have 6. But my library is always full of people and has lots of furniture so maybe they use them up quickly.