What are the benefits to having a library in your fortress?

[Transfem Bucky Beaver (Beav/Her)]

Can libraries improve skills? Or are they just a way to improve dwarves mood?

[Fel]

There are several skills that can increase in the library (on top of those only linked to the scholar profession I mean).

All of the medical skills, mechanic, pump operator, observer, organizer and record keeper.

When a dwarf already has some skills in any of those and is set as a scholar, he/she will ponder on topics related to it, preventing rust and adding some experience.

An alternate way to gain skill levels is to setup guild halls of course.

Overall the library is a place for the dwarves that want to think or read.
If you don't like abusing things like mist generators to keep the stress down it's often a good idea to have at least a small library once your fortress grows.

[BlackCockDown]

Originally posted by Fel:

An alternate way to gain skill levels is to setup guild halls of course.

I know that guild halls allow others to gain skills from watching demonstrations, but do the demonstrators ever get to improve their skills from being within a guild hall somehow?

[Nautilus]

Originally posted by BlackCockDown:

Originally posted by Fel:

An alternate way to gain skill levels is to setup guild halls of course.

I know that guild halls allow others to gain skills from watching demonstrations, but do the demonstrators ever get to improve their skills from being within a guild hall somehow?

Guild halls are social clubs for lazy dwarfs. I only build them because otherwise the dungeon will be full of tantruming guild members. Since a dwarf can quickly go from no experience to legendary in any task they do constantly for a few years there is no reason to use demonstrations. Hopefully they redo the skill gain system someday and make teaching super important because that would be cool.

[BlackCockDown]

Originally posted by Nautilus:

Since a dwarf can quickly go from no experience to legendary in any task they do constantly for a few years there is no reason to use demonstrations.

Kinda, except there are also some skills that ideally wouldn't be trained a lot (medical) and skills that require a lot of low quality waste to improve (weaponsmithing). Oh well, one dwarf's trash is a human trader's treasure for the latter case.

[Leiflen]

Dont forget necromancy can be learned in a library if you have a book! That’s always fun

[AlP]

Originally posted by Nautilus:

Guild halls are social clubs for lazy dwarfs. I only build them because otherwise the dungeon will be full of tantruming guild members. Since a dwarf can quickly go from no experience to legendary in any task they do constantly for a few years there is no reason to use demonstrations. Hopefully they redo the skill gain system someday and make teaching super important because that would be cool.

Guilds can train children. That way you can train them to be metalsmiths and prevent strange moods that result in stonecrafting artefacts.

Also useful for doctors and engravers, and planters (so your entire fort can plant effectively).

[Empath demon]

Well it's fun, so there's my reason! Lately I always embark with a full set of scholars in different fields and set them to pondering once the population starts filling out. For one, I just think it's a cool way to generate unique fort items, potentially written by the founders of the site government. For another, it's a place to collect all the dozens of tomes and scrolls my hearty warriors meticulously return to our fortress after a bloody melee - often coated in their own or another creatures' blood. They really start to pile up, and I have to make the library larger, carve out stacks and back rooms full of bookshelves. Maybe pasture a pair of tame ravens. I usually have a section full of display cases too, artifacts boost room value and a fancy library seems to attract visiting scholars with greater frequency.

[Skizmo]

My current fort I've made a great library that I keep separate from the rest of my fort, that once a dwarf hits retirement age (150 as they can start dying from old age after that), I send them to my vampire well, turn them into a vampire, make them read a book with the secrets of Life and Death to make them a necromancer for good measure, then assign them to be eternal scholars in my library that has over 3000 books and scrolls from traders and raiding. To read and ponder new ideas until the heat death of my computer.

[Stafford's Bees]

A library also sometimes makes some progress on the list of unknown innovations and technologies.