Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Research
 

I'm not sure what's wrong with Machine Operation (Media). Most Electronics Operation skills have Machine Operation analogs, and this seems to be ideal for microfilm readers, film projectors, phonographs, and just about all other machines where the object is to access information stored on a medium that functions not by electronic demodulation but by the precise physical alignment of the reader. (You can "read" film with the naked eye, and there are people who've learned to read phonograph records with a fingernail, so no electronics are needed at all.)

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Research
 

Fair enough, then Alice Talbot's player will be informed that the way to Research wizardry with the antiquated equipment aboard Penemue lies through Machine Operation (Media).

Alice was born in 1994 and the campaign in set at the end of 2018. Alice learned her Research skill in a world where computers are firmly a part of it, but given that she studies folklore and has done extensive work with medieval manuscripts, it would be plausible for her to have acquired familiarity with all technology used with Research at a modern university library and specialized research libraries in general.

If the microfiche devices at Alice's new job are explicitly intended to use no complicated electronics (which tend to fail around magic), would she learn Machine Operation (Media) at TL6, TL7 or TL8?

And does her Research/TL8 skill give her any useful defaults to either Machine Operation (Media) at the appropriate TL or a hypothetical Professional Skill (Librarian) that covers preservation of books and other media?

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Research
 

Note that "basic use" of some bit of end user facing technology is almost never what Electronics (or Machine) Operation is about. You most likely need it for the Immediate Action equivalents. Can you replace the bulb in a microfiche reader? Get the fiche back out when the lever that lifts the glass when you pull the carrier all the way forward falls off? Tap it the right place to realign it when the motion of the ship jiggles the optical train a little out and one side of the page goes blurry when you focus the other? Untangle a microfilm strip without (further) damaging it when it slips off the sprockets and winds itself in the mechanism?

If you just care about one kind of system, there may still not be a lot there - this is what One Task Wonder is for I suppose. But if you care about doing this sort of thing with a lot of different sorts of projection systems, some of which might have been designed in the days before ergonomics engineering, pictorial manuals, or international standards, Machine Operation (Projectors) starts to look a lot more like a skill.

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Research
 

This is the part I'd probably call for Archaeology to do. But I admit I treat it somewhat different from RAW, as a technical skill with none of that "know stuff about ancient times" stuff. Take History for that.

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Research
 

As an actual librarian, with the degree and everything...

Librarians have the following technical functions: They collect information, organize and preserve information, and they connect people to the information they seek. Depending on the librarian, one of those functions takes precedence. In the libraries I've worked at (all academic), librarians were divided into three major departments: Circulation, Reference, and Technical Services (plus some oddballs like Government Documents and Special Collections, which will depend on the library in question).

Circulation and Reference are public-facing roles. Circulation (or Public Access, or whatever) manages the collection maintenance: checking materials in and out, handling loans to and from other libraries, keeping the collection in order (major task), and often catching all the other customer service tasks that aren't specific to Reference. Circulation is the department most likely to not have a librarian-with-a-degree in the department; if one is present, he or she will probably be the department head. Circ staff will probably have the highest level of Area Knowledge for the stacks, as they maintain them via shelf-reading. (How that changes in a mostly digital library, I don't know.)

Reference is what most people probably think of when they think of librarians. Reference librarians (in academic libraries) teach people the Research skill and academic ethics (e.g., how and why not to plagiarize), work with instructors to guide how the collection is built and managed (each academic department will usually have a librarian assigned to it who specializes in that subject and ideally cultivates a relationship with the faculty), and, of course, answer research questions. (BTW, in a major library, I strongly suspect the most common question is "Where's the bathroom?") Reference librarians of any stripe will have the highest Research skill, as a rule, since they exercise it daily.

Technical Services is where items come into the library. Their roles include preservation, cataloging, discarding, and acquisitions. They may also manage warehouses where items that don't fit in the main collection are stored. (You might also stick information technology in here; the more modern the library, the more that's likely to be it's own department.)

Special Collections are just that, and are usually too varied to generalize. A special collections librarian will usually be extremely familiar with their collection, including its organization and preservation, and what items are or are not suitable for it. Outside of academia, specialist libraries are this kind of thing writ large (or sometimes rather small). Alice Talbot would be considered a specialist librarian.

Government Documents are a rather ubiquitous sort of special collection. Many US academic libraries are required to be repositories (full or partial) of federal documents, and they have their own cataloging system (SuDocs) and requirements.

Outside of academia and specialists, you have two other major sorts of librarians: Public and Children's. The skills between all these overlap a bit - probably enough for GURPS' level of detail - but they are distinctly different career paths. (Also, ones in which I have no personal experience.)

A public librarian (obviously) deals with the general public a lot. They are more likely to speak a second language than most academic librarians and (hopefully) will have good people skills. A lot of their reference questions will be reader guidance sort of questions; "if you like this, then you'll probably like this" kind of thing. (Connoisseur skill?) They'll also probably be more well-versed in local history and genealogy than you might expect. Of relevance to adventurers, they'll probably also have an idea of the local cranks and weirdos (... which probably includes the adventurers), because they are professionally obliged to help anyone who comes up to the desk. They also probably know a bit about local government, because they're always having to justify their existence as a budget item.

Children's librarians work in schools and public libraries, and they have a pretty particular mindset and set of skills. Their role is to teach children how to read, research, and love learning and reading. Of all librarians, they will probably have the lowest Research skill levels, but they'll have the highest Teaching. (Admittedly, that's probably only a difference of one or two levels in GURPS.) Unfortunately, as far as I know, there is no Child Handling skill in GURPS, but they should have something like it. Performance (story-telling) is a good secondary skill.

Finally, as a profession, librarians have a code of ethics. In GURPS terms it's a 5-point Code of Honor at most, but items 2 and 3 could cause serious consequences in societies that are big on censorship and/or surveillance.

So, if I'm building a non-cinematic librarian, they'll have: Research, Writing, and Teaching at IQ, more or less; Computer Operation, Electronics Operation (media) and/or Machine Operation (media); Savoir-Faire or Diplomacy for customer service and reference interviews; Professional Skill (Librarian) to cover the basics of collection management, item preservation and acquisition, and Area Knowledge (my collection). They would also have a skill or two relevant to their specialty - Performance (storytelling), Computer Programming, Administration, Law, etc. (I might also let PS (Librarian) cover relevant Operation skills for the machines they specifically know, such as the quirks of their particular library's ancient microfilm and microcard readers.) Depending on how dedicated they are to the profession, they may have CoH (Librarian). At most, it'd be a 10-point skill package.

As usual, bear in mind that most library tasks get a hefty bonus from equipment (that's the point of a library) and from being safe, routine, and not under time pressure.

(Also, I think, many many reference librarians will have a quirk like "instinctively helpful in answering questions." They may have trouble resisting subtle interrogations.)

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Research
 

That last part is already addressed in the reaction tables. If you ask for information, you have a significant bonus when you ask a librarian or similar professional.

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Research
 

Absolutely nothing. My disagreement comes with requiring it to use a singular piece of simple machinery to facilitate another skill.

It would be like requiring a science* skill because someone is using a magnifying lens to look more closely at something as part of Traps (Per).

This use of a microfiche should be covered by Research, that's my only argument (though I'd happily give Machine Operation (Media) Complementary Skill status if the Character also had it).



* Or whatever skill you feel best covers using a magnifying lens... say Machine Operation? ;)

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Research
 

Out of curiosity, where are we getting the Machine Operation skill (I'm not finding it in Basic)? Is it defined officially somewhere, or is it just an obvious enough generalization of Electronics Operation that it doesn't need explaining?

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Research
 

As noted above its in GURPS Powers: The Wierd
Just as valid a skill I think as Electronics operation and maybe Operation skills should be part of the triad.
I just think that use of any device designed to be used by endusers is below skill level resolution. This groups a bunch though so makes sense.

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Research
 

The triad is design/repair/use. Electronics Operation is a use skill; so is Machine Operation.