Another (possibly lame) idea. Let me know if this sort of thing has been discussed and rejected or is a good idea in theory but fails in practice. EfU has a huge amount of information about its setting, characters, and history that, given the current forum setup, would be rather hard to look into. Something that would be interesting to see would be an IC research section of the forums. If there were any kind of quasi-library where characters could look into old records and lore that would otherwise be next to impossible to find out. Things like old election results, what god the goblins in Lower follow, or things that happened before any of the living characters were around. I liked the sort of thing that CoA set up, and it would really make the setting come to life even more.

Here's a quick example:

Edmund is looking through old records for news regarding old murders that were tied to the goblin community. He searches for details about when they occured, who was attacked, and whether the goblins in question were executed.

Response: After some careful research, Edmund discovers that there were a string of murders that occured in the last few years. Most of the victim's wounds were (understandabally) below the waste, and a common sort of toxin was used to cripple the target.

The rare book shop would be ideal, or perhaps the former Councilor who was a priestess of Oghma could set something up.

This was suggested or mentioned in General Discussion some time ago, and there are IC reasons (and possibly a few OOC ones too) research isn't supposed to be simple. Newpapers/periodical publications are PC-made and usually heavily biased. The Spellguard are loathe to share information or perform research on behalf of citizens. The Watch isn't trained to shuffle papers around and probably detests keeping arrest logs. There are both PC and NPC scholars, but they tend to show bias in their works, and probably even bend the truth or flat-out lie about history.

You can send letters to the Spellguard, Watch, Seekers, Bookshop, Adelia Tyrell, or the PC you learned has been around forever and might know what you want to learn, but information is (currently) something of a luxury. Attempts to build a library sort of disappeared after a series of disasters hit the city; many characters should be struggling to see to their survival more than investigating years-old cases or finding someone's old comprehensive list of fragrant mushrooms. There are plenty of intelligence gathering opportunities for PCs to do in-game, though. Ask Gobbler or Rexbn who they worship, if you really want to know, because you might be the first to even ask ;)

Except, in game there is not a library for research.

The sources you need to do historical study don't exist in the form of a library. There isn't free access to the Watch files, there is not a collection of news papers (Sanctuary's first newspaper appears to have begun in the year 150 afterall), and the few books that have been published can be found in game.

Essentially, to do any research you either have to 1) walk around in game and find the books that exist or 2) conduct interviews with those who remember the events or 3) ask around until you find someone who does know something helpful on the subject.

None of which can be done by posting a request for simple research on the forums.