Oh, absolutely. Portia would have no qualms about asserting that an author should be ashamed of him/herself for wasting perfectly decent vellum, simply so that they can say they authored a text. "Do you think paper grows on trees?!?!" (snerk)
...Ah, the marks our parentes leave upon us!
First, a library useally contains a lot of worthless stuff (maybe useful to others).
Secondly, primers (Lvl6Q21 or Lvl5Q15+) are useful.
Of the 15 seasons available to teach an apprentice, one is used for opening the arts, three are used to teach the spells (spells are easier to learn from a teacher), one is used for parma. MT can be taught by exposure, but the first level might be taught directly (+1 for lvl 1 , +1 for specialty). Unless AL and Latin is outsourced completely they also consume seasons. So the number of seasons aailable for teaching arts (apart from exposure) is limited.
The xp/season is 3+6 single student + com + teach 2 + spec. single student = about 12 , whereas a good primer can deliver 21 xp.
Thirdly, none of us have apprentices, but we need primers to get to lvl5 in all arts. Magi may be reluctant to ask other magi to teach them (because they might demand a tuition season in return, which halves the gain from teaching).
An apprentice can also be Trained in Magic Theory while the master is doing lab work, as long as he doesn't need the apprentice's assistance to boost the Lab Total, and that's often a higher Quality than you'd get from a book, esp. if the lab is outfitted with a Teaching specialization.
Scott
I totally agree that primers are very handy, even without apprentices. Still, a full set will suck up build points quickly. Also, I don't see those sending us as wanting to prepare us for apprentices. Wouldn't that be up to us? I expect they'll want to prepare us to do what we need to do to figure out what happened. So I would expect more tractatus and lab texts.
I did a pretty sound mathematical analysis to discover raising the quality above 15 for a level 5 Art summa is generally not useful. Almost everyone would benefit more often from the level 6 or 7 equivalent from the same author, including the poor readers. I tend to find level 6 quality 18 to be fabulous. If you're a poor reader you can still hit level 5 in a season. A good reader can hit 6 in a season. It also doesn't require as a high an Art relative to Communication to write it.
Chris
Figuring we each have about 100 points to work with, here is what I expect Tasia to bring:
Insights into Insight (Q12 Intellego tractatus)
*Domination of the Magi (Q 10 Rego tractatus)
On the Essence of Vis (Q11 Vim tractatus)
*Puzzles of Bonisagus (Q10 Magic Theory tractatus)
The Wizard's Bulwark (Q10 Parma Magica tractatus)
Bind Wound [CrCo10]
Purification of the Festering Wounds [CrCo20]
The Chirurgeon's Gentle Touch (spells wiki) [CrCo20, ritual]
The Severed Limb Made Whole [CrCo25, ritual]
The Physician's Circle (spells wiki) [CrCo45, ritual]
*Seven-League Stride [ReCo30]
*Leap of Homecoming [ReCo35]
Maintaining the Demanding Spell [ReVi50]
How does that sound?
Chris
It's going to be less than 100, because it depends partly on donations. The magi can have some input on the nature of those donations, though, esp. Portia.
Scott
And there's a decent chance some of the ones off my list will be donated, especially the lab texts for healing, which would cut down on the numbers pretty well. I was just starting with the estimate of 100 because we were looking at nearly 700 points, so well over 100 apiece, and because I hadn't heard a benchmark to use. I just wanted to make some progress. I expect to edit it.
Chris
Salutor asked I think for each magus to have one book he would bring with him, though I think two Tractatus wold be a fair substitute for one Summa.
Scott
I'll do whatever. If I'm bringing fewer books, I'll just cut from what I wrote above. How's this look?
Insights into Insight (Q12 Intellego tractatus)
*Domination of the Magi (Q 10 Rego tractatus)
*Seven-League Stride [ReCo30]
*Leap of Homecoming [ReCo35]
Maintaining the Demanding Spell [ReVi50]
Chris
It looks useful enough for me. What else would you like to see?
Scott
The healing spells listed above could be useful. We don't seem to have much. Once we have labs Tasia can become the resident magical healer since she can master the rituals quickly.
Chris
Let me add what Viola would like to see: as I said before, she favors Arts books (all the Techniques except Perdo, and Animal, Herbam, Imaginem, and maybe Vim for Forms), and also would really like some Magic Theory books useful for someone who already has a score of 7 in MT.
Scott
How do books we've authored fit in? I spent two leftover seasons on authoring Magic Theory tractatus, and I'd hope we wouldn't have to spend bps on them!
Portia wants to see lots of tractatus on theory, and at least one or two texts on artes liberales, and philosophiae. No primers, as "...there shouldn't be any incompetent magi residing here, and vagrants can't be choosers."
If you spent seasons of work on it, it doesn't count against Build Points.
Scott
I've just been re-reading the Covenants books rules, and I was curious if we're using them. The reason I was asking is that the bonuses to Quality (esp. the automatic +3 to books on non-magical subjects) and the Correspondence rules would affect not only the library but character creation (and it annoys me when add-on rules do that. 
).
Scott
I think you've misread it slightly. Non-magical books get no bonus over what they had before. It used to be Com+6. Now it's Com+3+1+1+1, assuming you have good enough binders, scribes, and illuminators. Books on magic, however, can get a bonus via resonances. They used to be Com+6, but now they're Com+3+1+1+1+(up to 3 from resonances). (See the errata.) For their price I have found 1-pt resonances seem to be reasonably common, but anything beyond that gets extremely rare.
As for Correspondence, we use it in all my pen-and-paper games. It hadn't looked like anyone was using it here, so I just assumed we weren't. I'm happy with it being included, too. My rule of thumb would be you have to sketch out any magi with whom you correspond regularly. That way you are being rewarded for adding to the detail of the stories and the world.
Chris
I've not been explicitly using the Covenants rules when creating books for the library (Which I am still working on, despite the paucity of material currently posted. I'll try to get another block posted in a day or two). I'm afraid my levels of creatively have been struggling at creating dozens of different titles and magi names; trying to come up with resonances as well isn't seeming worth it. I've just been listing the books as quality X; if people later decide we're using the Covenants rules, then presumably some of that X is from the covenants bonuses.
Yes, at first I thought that was a possible interpretation, but have a look at the sidebar on the page in question (I'd be more specific, but I think I left the book in another room, and I have two sleeping animals in my lap).
I agree it's appealing, and its effect on total XP's per season is pretty minimal, but we'll only do it if everyone is OK with going back adding those XP's to their characters. (It's pretty hard to believe a magus would not do it, barring constant travel or extreme anti-social tendencies.)
Scott
You want me to email you lists from old libraries I've used?
As long as the books have fairly high Qualities, you can just assume some of that is due to resonances, yes, but resonances also raise the average Quality of books, which is the real problem.
Scott
Put me in charge of a section of it. Just let me know how many points to use in what areas. I'll add to the creativity.
Chris