Viola's butterfly familiar Constantine is listed as "flitting about" in his advancement log for most seasons (it's too lengthy to post online, but I post the latest excerpt in the "Seasonal Activities and Advancement" thread (Seasonal Activities and Advancement) whenever we advance time)--which is I think more realistic than hitting the books. He does earn XP's on adventures and when assisting in the lab, though, and he's gotten a hold of some vis at least once or twice.
As you'll see from the Google Scholar link, I didn't publish a lot when I was an academic, but I did a fair amount of research on the Baltics, including field research in Riga, Daugavpils, and one other city in 2001.
On the subject of Constantine: I just realized that, during the last story (the trip to the Chersonesus regio), I forgot about the house rule, and didn't give him XP's. Salutor, do you remember how many he was supposed to have?
EDIT: The grogs got 8 for that story, so I'll assume the same for Constantine, unless you say otherwise.
Scott