The King's Library - Community Help

The King's Library​

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Hello all! I am creating this post for several reasons. As some of you might know already, I am building a library, open to the public, which will contain player-written books. There is a great deal of history in these books from over the years and it would be of great benefit to the community (and new players!) to be able to access this history, lore, and knowledge whenever they like.

However, I need your help!

Challenges Ahead:

• I just tested this out myself, and I am unable to actually copy any books if they are locked down. This means that the owners of any player-written books (who wish to have them displayed in the King's Library) will need to make copies of them for me, or allow me access to the books so I can make copies myself.
• Another challenge I face is a general lack of physical (virtual?) resources necessary for such an undertaking. I spent a lot of time scraping the money together to purchase the house in its location, and time is limited for further farming.
• Sorting, Cataloging, and presenting the books in a logical and meaningful manner

What you can do to help:
I do tend to try and do things myself due to not wanting to make a nuisance of myself nor put others out of their hard-earned items, but with much to do in this task, combined with real-life work, family, obligations (you all understand I am sure), I find myself in the position looking to the community for a bit of help.

The King's Library would greatly benefit from the donations of any of the following:

• Player-written books. As mentioned above, I can not access/copy these myself, so this is of the utmost important item that can be donated.
• Blank books (the bluish ones with 40 pages).
• Platinum to upgrade lockdown count in the Library. The biggest "physical" barrier is the lack of lockdown space for the books, they go very quickly. This ultimately limits the number of books that can be presented at any given time, which means until there are sufficient lockdowns the player-written books on display will be a curated selection which will have to rotate on a monthly basis. More lockdowns means I can add more books on display which reduces or even eliminates the need for a curated selection.
• Physical resources such as reagents - lots of traveling requires resources. Boards and regular iron ingots are also helpful, though I think I might have plenty of those already.
• Decorative items like paintings/tapestries. I do not need/want many, as the majority of lockdowns will be for books, but it would be nice to have a welcoming atmosphere in the Library.
• Gold - any gold would go towards the acquisition of the above mentioned items.

If you would like to donate anything to help with building the King's Library (ESPECIALLY player-written books!) please do contact me either here or on IRC if I am around (IRC name is Alex_Caember). I also set up a Donation Box in the Library (see below).

Plans for the Future:
Once the King's Library is stocked with player-written books, I have several additional goals in mind.

• Set up a vendor that sells sets of player-written books so you can add to your own collection if you so choose.
• Set up a donation vendor (sells token items for x gold) which will go towards further funding the Library and expanding it. Completed!
• Begin writing events/contests. Hopefully this will encourage further player-written books to be made and submitted to the Library, and contests can have rewards as well - something a bit different from other contests. Completed! Check the Player Event forum!
• If I get the opportunity to expand the Library, I would ultimately love to break the Library into different sections (it is a 2-story house), so one section would be curated to Biographical books about the players on the shard, another section about historical events, etc.

So with all that said, anything will help. Player-written books are the #1 priority so if you have any you would like to share, please, please, please do let me know.

To make things a little easier hopefully, I set up a Mail Box on the King's Library steps. If you would like to donate at your leisure, you are free to drop any donations inside the box.





The King's Library is very easy to find - if you go to the Britain Moongate, head straight right for about a screen or so, it is the only 2-Story in the area. At present, there are no player-written books on display (the books there are just placeholders). I was also told by the man himself that books will be sealable in the near future, which will allow for everyone to read the books on display but cannot edit them.

Again, anything will be helpful, but the most important thing is player-written books.

Thank you all kindly for your time!
-Alex Caember


Special Thanks:
Raven
Qi
Jesus
Mes
Alice Asteroid/Enna
Paddy O'Brien
Caska
Jesus is King
Xegugg
Mera'din
Anonymous
Jupiter
Zyler
Azoth
Arawn
Mafghine
Boothby
Basoosh
Treasureman
Xyio
TGC Members who contributed books

Looking good! I'll make copies of the books I've collected and bring them over.

I want to say a big thank you to both Corvus and Jesus for their generous donations, and Paddy as well for his contribution of books!

I would love more books, so if you have any player-written ones you would like to contribute, please let me know, or feel free to drop them in the donation box inside the Library itself. Thank you!

I keep a bookshelf with over fifty player written books you can copy. These are things like sheep and taming permits written by snapdragon, all editions of The Daily Renaissance, to completely random and pointless books.

@Mes - That would be awesome! Please let me know when might be a good time, I will load up on blank books! Whenever is good for you, maybe hit me up in IRC? Name is Alex_Caember in there. Thanks!

Wanted to thank Mes for the contribution of books, got quite a few gems out of that collection, so thank you!


More book donations are certainly welcome at this time! I am more than willing to put the leg work in to minimize any inconvenience to anyone so I can do all the copying and sorting and everything else.

I would also love to interview some of the older players on this shard as well if anyone is willing

I've been pushing for a books patch since I started playing here so that I could do something like this.

http://uorforum.com/threads/books.8173/#post-66502

*hopes*

Yeah, it will be great when books can be displayed and not edited, that is the main thing

If anyone else wants to contribute books to the library, they are most definitely welcome! Further, if you have an adventure or story you would like to tell, I would gladly also take any books that you may write. Had one person do this already and it turned out to be a great book for the library!

I want to give Alice Asteroid a HUGE THANK YOU for the massive donation of books. I am not sure the exact number, but it is north of 100 books donated.

It is too bad that you are leaving us, but I wish you the best in doing whatever it is you are going to do next. Again, THANK YOU!

Oh wow, So I went searching and found the following:

The Daily Renaissance 3-6. Written by none other than Sawyer Newmark. They all featured articles about me so naturally i decorated my house with them. I also have a 3 page love poem from Paddy O'Brien.....

http://imgur.com/a/FM5PK

cute poem

HAHAHAHHAHAHAH yeah i remember that, it was after you guys held me hostage in my log cabin waiting for my body to decay with my vanq spear lol. I don't remember much about the book other than a poem insinuating a homoerotic relationship between Bart and Genocide

Oh nm i saw the link.... wow i don't even remember that. Maybe that was after a few shots of whiskey hahah

I also was the one who sent @Alice Asteroid junk mail in her mailbox, like the publishers clearing house one and one other that i can't remember hah. I might have wrote a chain letter too, but i don't recall exactly

I'd buy that for a dollar!

er uhm.. ahem, right... so, hey! nice library!

That poem is pretty hilarious! Paddy, I had no idea you had it in you!

As for the Daily Renaissance, I think I have issues 1-6 and 8, but I think I might be missing 7 and any others that might have come after 8.

I'll be transcribing my forum adventures into books as I complete the arcs and look forward to giving you copies to add to the library.

That would be excellent Sathar! I look forward to seeing them

Just as a note to folk - if I have learned one thing with this Library project (and the one I did back on Atlantic) is that the only way you will leave any sort of lasting legacy is to create books, whether they are journals of your adventures, letters to friends, or just random thoughts. You can spend years gathering gold, rares, loot, castles, and when you leave the lands you are mostly forgotten shortly after. The only ones that will know you existed were whoever your friends were. Leaving behind a book (or books) is the only lasting way to tell everyone now and in the future "I was here; what I did mattered."

I encourage everyone to think about writing down some of their stories, or write something and give it to a friend. Write your thoughts on the virtues or the government or baking or whatever else you want to talk about. I guarantee you someone will be interested in them in the future, and you will be remembered.

Its unfortunate we were unable to pull off my method of securing books but making them readable. Hopefully telamon addresses it sooner than "soon" so you can get it opened up for all to read. I bet you have some great stuff right now

Right now the library has nearing 200 unique player-made books. Due to lockdown constraints, I will be able to only show a portion of them at a time (still need to wait in the book fix anyway).

While waiting for the book fix, if anyone wants to donate books to the library, please let me know Looking for books made by players. If you want to write down some of your own stories or tales of adventure you might have had here on UOR, those are always welcome as well. Write about your guild, a skill, a monster, another player - it is all welcome. Still accepting any other donations as well to strive towards upping the lockdown limit on the library to display more books.

Thank you kindly!