Lhankor Mhy is about knowing things. He also seems to like getting paid for what he knows. I imagine that these traits are also generally present in his followers. In the clans, most Lhankor Mhy teaching is done master to apprentice, and I imagine the medium is memorization of stories and poems, plus the always-useful experience of prophecy. "Book learning" and literacy, of course, are sacred to the god, but clan sages are not necessarily going to have access to materials to make writing all that effective as a knowledge transmission medium rather than a sacred act. In the temples in the cities, especially famous temples like Jonstown, literacy and reading is likely much more important.
I think the term "library" for Lhankor Mhy temples is misleading -- the LMites are interested in knowing things, not providing access to them. Things we associate with libraries -- finding aids, reference help, the ability toi check things out -- are unlikely to appear. While there is a large repository of knowledge, it is regularly pilfered by the sages who maintain it. This is not theft, because the sages are, after all, the servants of the god and the items will be replaced once the sage is done with them (this may only happen at the time of death, of course). Anyone who has worked for an academic library will recognize this behavior. When a sage dies, his students, colleagues, and the temple administration rush to his quarters to a) regain or b) seize any useful materials, and the cycle repeats itself. The main collection itself has some kind of order, but no system really works because each High Priest has his own pet projects and half the material is not where it is supposed to be anyway. I can only imagine that reshelving efforts are poorly enacted, further increasing the apparent chaos. Half of the process of becoming a full member of the temple community is learning to navigate the collection. Outsiders, of course, must hire a sage to do the research and trust in his results.
What do students do? I would guess that most, if not all, students attach themselves to a professor who guides their studies. Students likely buy admission to various lecture series, many by their "advisor," but also those of other professors recommended by the mentor. Attending lectures by a rial professor is a major error. Gangs of students contest with each other through words and blows, and their mentors occasionally put on a show of "knowledge duels." (Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman's _The Fall of the Kings_ uses this sort of duel as a major plot point, although the setting is rather more Rennaisance than Sartar is likely to be.) The currency of the temple is information, not reasoning, so disputes are won by the sage who can haul out the biggest authority, not by the most cunning reasoning. The question is "is Vindolf or Engvard a more authoritative source about the life of Sartar" not "do my interpretations of Vingolf's History convince." Post-Abelardian arguements from logic may appear in Lunarized or Esrolian settings, but they aren't really part of LM's canon.
Students also get into fights with townspeople. Students also fall in love, have money problems, take up hairbrained political and religious causes, experiment with drugs, alcohol, and other recreational activities. In LM-dominated cities, there is probably not much of a book trade, as the merchants won't be able to know their wares (in Esrolia or Tarsh this probably isn't as much of a problem). Where there are no booksellers or scriptoria, students will have to obtain texts first from their mentor and then from the collection and copy the texts themselves. There are likely numerous versions of texts, and many adventures could be run on finding the "best" version to copy. Having the mentor set a student a task (find a piece of information) in preparation for a duel could also be fun, especially if the desired information in in the possession of an enemy.
In the clans, the system should be very much a teacher and a few students. In the big cosmopolitan temples of Esrolia, it probably seems more like a medieval university. In a Sartar city like Jonstown, the feeling should be a little more in between.
That's my two cents.
Peter Larsen
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