"If you express your opinions in any way in an interview, some participants will say the thing they think will make you happy. Participants don't normally contradict the framing in questions-- if you ask what made them sad they won't go 'actually that made me happy.' If you authoritatively claim something false, you can literally induce false memories. It is not hard. Police officers do it all the time. And that's not even getting into things like-- establishing rapport with the interviewee, or getting specific answers instead of vague generalities-- getting people to admit to socially undesirable behavior--"

“......................oh. Well. Uh. I’ll.... keep that in mind? I mean, um, thank you! Thank you.” He’s bright red. 

".............uh, sorry. I'm an academic psychologist. Was."

“No, no, it’s good! It’s good. Um. It will definitely be good to have you working here, it sounds like?”

"I don't know anything about how to be a librarian either! --If you want I can bring you some of the books from my qualitative research methods class."

“That would be great thank you so much. Um, I mean. That would be. Helpful, probably. If you’re okay with that. ...Do you have anything you need help with?”

"...I don't suppose you have a degree in library science?"

“N....o. Sorry.” He’s red again.

"...I feel kind of bad. We've known each other for ten minutes and all I've done is make you feel inadequate about your interviewing ability."

“It’s okay! Really, it’s— it’s fine.” He sounds almost hopeful. “Um. Is there anything... easy... that I can help with? Or I can just... bring you more tea?”

".........I have no idea what I'm doing either, I was hired as a librarian and I was planning on spending today reading an introduction to library science textbook. Also testing the Magnus Archives with a carbon monoxide detector."

Martin visibly relaxes. “Oh, okay, that. Makes sense! Or, well, it doesn’t, but— Um. I can set up the carbon monoxide detector if you want, while you read?”

"...the reason I want to test it is that I was getting a strange feeling of being watched and that could be something paranormal but it could also just be... carbon monoxide. And I would feel really stupid if I got incredibly paranoid about paranormal stuff and it turned out I had carbon monoxide poisoning."

“Makes sense. I... think I know the feeling. So, not just you, and probably a good idea to check for mundane stuff first.”

(If Lev’s been paying attention, he feels watched here, too. Has since he walked in to the Archives, though the amount occasionally fluctuates.)

"If you want, maybe you can work on getting that set up, and I can go back to my place and grab the books from my class and the introduction to library science textbook, and then we can both spend some time learning how to do our jobs? And maybe take a break for lunch and check out the Indian place."

(Indian place is several blocks away and will let him figure out whether he gets any weird feelings from Martin, separately from the Archives.)

“Sure! That sounds... really good, actually? Thanks.”

...he is unsure if there is any way to say "I don't hate you, I am just really really passionate about research methods" that isn't unprofessional, and decides that perhaps the best way to do it is with a gift of Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing Data.

Does anything happen on his walk to and from his apartment?

Nope. He feels less watched as soon as he steps out the door; there’s one fleeting burst of the feeling about halfway through the walk back, but it dissipates quickly. 

He writes this down in his notebook for transfer to his spreadsheet later.

"Here are the books! Did you get the carbon monoxide detector working?"

“I did! It says everything’s normal? So that’s not... great. I mean, it is, because we’re not going to get carbon monoxide poisoning! But, uh, if it were carbon monoxide then we’d be more able to... fix it. So.”

"I did some research on my phone when I was commuting and formaldehyde and pesticides can also cause haunted-house-like symptoms, but formaldehyde we should be able to smell, and I don't think we're going to get intense pesticide exposure in London. So probably it's paranormal."

“Could be infrasound, I guess? But... probably, yeah. That’s not... great.”

Lev starts taking out a pile of books from his backpack. "Sorry if this is overwhelming, I kind of, uh, grabbed everything I had. I figured information overload was better than not knowing enough? --If you have any questions you can ask me too, Research Methods was one of my favorite undergrad classes to teach." 

“No, this is—this is good! Thank you. I’ll—make sure to do that, yeah.” He chooses a book at random and squints at it for a moment before settling down and beginning to read. 

Lev is very skeptical that Martin will in fact do that but now is the time to make an Anki deck about library science. 

(...He considers asking Martin to let him switch jobs but is pretty sure he will have more pull to run the place if he is technically in charge of things.)