Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Research
 

Ok, so a PC can legitimately call herself an assistant librarian without any other skills than Research at IQ+1 (and four levels of Occultist Talent)?

The 'library' she works in is very small, in terms of square footage (it's on a yacht), but extremely well funded and focused on occult subjects. It's got number of Grimoires, in the RPM sense, and a good overview of the things that go into Thaumatology skill, and as for books that don't fit aboard, they'll be on microfilm.

There is also the possibility of using computers for research and storage, but the occult sections are all kept on TL6 microfilm rather than TL8 digital storage.*

*For Dresden-file -esque reasons, where magic and technology don't play nicely together.

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Research
 

I would agree, but suspect that much more likely at a University library than a public or middle school library.

I would say Research at IQ+1 qualifies for any Librarian, though maybe you could expect better at a Major university or some Research Foundations.
And that Occult Talent is akin to Kromms AK suggestion for a specialty library. Its certainly would help with the author or other search terms.

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Research
 

What I would say is that the actual iibrarian at a public library has a significantly lower skill than the one at a university library, and can find information on the less arcane questions that a public library patron would probably ask.

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Research
 

You can legitimately call yourself a librarian if somebody who owns a library says you are. It's not a heavily regulated trade, particularly if you don't work for a government owned library.

Research is the primary skill you'd get out of a Library Science curriculum, so it is probably the most important skill you'd need to be hired by a *serious* library (well other than Literacy in the language most of the materials are in) - but I suspect a lot of librarians actually have a point of Teaching or Connossieur (Books) instead. Other skills you'd probably get out of that Library Science curriculum would be that aforementioned Teaching, Computer Operation, Electronics Operation (Media), broken Literacy in a couple other common languages (it helps if you can read the titles of the foreign language collection after all), Administration, and maybe a point in Accounting, Photography, Craft (Bookbinding) or Archaeology (which is the skill I use for conserving museum materials and the like)

In your example I'd recommend investing a point in Electronics Operation (Media)/TL7 for the microfilm/fiche systems. Yeah it feels a little odd, but that does seem to be the skill you'd use, and you just know the things are going to go wonky at a critical moment, *especially* if magic doesn't play nice with technology.

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Research
 

I would instead make it Machine Operation (Optical Devices) or (Microfilm Viewers). Yes, there are electric circuits, but they're not there to process information or signals, are they? They're there to power effectors and control them. Working on them may involve Electrician, but the main mechanism is an optical device, right?

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Research
 

Is there any skill called Machine Operation?

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Research
 

No.

And really? There is no need for a skill to operate a microfiche reader, they are dead simple to use. That's like requiring Elect Op (Media) to use an overhead projector.

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Research
 

Yes, there is. I wrote it up myself, and Kromm approved my using it in GURPS Powers: The Weird. It's essentially the same as Electronics Operation, but with nonelectrical devices, and the associated repair skill in Mechanic in some form. It's on p. 5 if you want to look it up.

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Research
 

On one hand, that's been my experience, and I might allow it for anyone with an appropriate personal TL. On the other hand, it might be a familiarity within, say, Research. On the gripping hand, though, it can be surprising what people will find hard. I once gave a staff member at Comic-Con the job of preparing name placards, which required her to copy first and last names from a database to Word, and then print the resulting page; she could not figure out how to do Copy, Paste, Print, and I had to assign the job to someone else. Even if you call that Incompetence, it requires a skill to be incompetent at. So I'm wondering if some people are similarly unable to figure out microfilm viewers.

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Research
 

Should Research default to Machine Operation (Optical Devices), and vice versa, considering that at late TL6 until mid-TL8, a lot of the more involved uses of Research require extensive use of microfilm?