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[shoowop]

When I woke up this morning I was (of course) already thinking of DF.  It occurs that there are absolutely NO libraries or books whatsoever.  What up with that? Where are the massive collections of books chronicling the personal history of my fortress, or the history of my dwarven civilization, where are the fictional stories about a team of 3 dwarf vikings getting lost perhaps? (  )

Paper could come from plants as papyrus, or wood as paper.  I'm not actually sure how it's made and how complex the process is so maybe they'd need a specific workshop/profession for it, or maybe it'd just made at the carpenters/farmers workshop; either way. Ink would be made at a dyers shop. 

Then, there'd be the book workshop in question.  Dunno what you'd call it.  You could order books made just like any other item or material, possibly separated into historical/fictional/technical etc. and this would give birth to a writers profession. The historical and fictional books would be like engravings on a wall, you could look at them and, depending on the writers skill, get a little story based on the events in the world.  Books could be a trade resource, add to your wealth, dwarves would read in their spare time and nobles would mandate books (probably made of slade) and then libraries..

Libraries would work like meeting halls.  Store alot of books there, dwarves come, dwarves read.  You could just get a simple happy thought from 'reading a good book' lately, and maybe even things like if a dwarf reads a technical manual on mechanics, he gets a little more experience with mechanics.  Nothing game breaking of course, but you get my point

[NW_Kohaku]

I think the fact that this one is called "Just another book thread" says quite a bit...

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=57546.msg1261295#msg1261295
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=54733.msg1176717#msg1176717
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=54332.msg1166248#msg1166248
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=50440.msg1063743#msg1063743

Oh, and hey, let me toot my own horn http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=50284.msg1057639#msg1057639

... and that's just the first page (of 9) of the search hits using only "book" as a search term.

Keep in mind that custom workshops give us quite a bit of power, already.  We can already make "books", make "libraries" that are built using books, etc.  All we need are a few more options that give us power with regards to how dwarves can use workshops or furniture or build rooms, and the sort of leisure time demands that I was talking about in the thread I had suggested.

[shoowop]

oh my. and I thought I was being clever 

[NW_Kohaku]

Well, as long as you learn, it's a positive thing.

It's just a good idea to run a few search terms related to your topic. I wouldn't want to say that there are no new ideas under the sun, but the overwhelming majority, at least in their rudimentary forms, have already been suggested before, and it generally is better to move towards looking for topics, ressurecting old threads if they are similar enough, or at least referencing the old threads, and saying ways in which your suggestions would improve upon them than simply putting your own idea out.  If you can synthesize some of the several older ideas into new ones, and learn from the old points of contention, you will not only generally be able to build up to a better suggestion, but it helps set a tone of listening to others' opinions before throwing out your own opinions.

Trying to get something on the Eternal Suggestion Voting page (and searching for something with your own key terms in it beforehand) would also make your suggestion far more likely to actually be seen and listened to, as well.

[RavingManiac]

I made a thread a while back talking about using metal plates and etching as the dwarven writing system, however it only ever got one reply...
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=54733.0

It is generally accepted that some form of writing will be implemented eventually. People are mostly arguing about the details.