I think our library is haunted.

The Chatters
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And I’m not the only one who thinks so. :sweat_smile:

There is a bit of history, so skip ahead if you'd like...

The library in town was originally built in the very early 1900s, but it was very small. As soon as it expanded in the late 1900s, they built a whole new building down the street (where it currently is) and left the old building up as an art center. Across the street from us used to be the old school district office with a specific area of the floor being a research center about Kansas, but a few years ago, they tore the building down to move it across town and then they put the research center of Kansas in the basement of the library next to the children’s department, our book sale room, and a meeting space (just saying so it doesn’t sound so scary lol). And the research center may actually be what causes this place to be haunted…

TL; DR—we have a research center in our library that has old objects and things from the 1800s and well… the activity we have happens to be in our basement area… where the research section resides…

“But why do you think it’s haunted?”

  1. We’ve had books fallen off the shelves… with no reason.

The way the children’s library is set up is that there are multiple short shelves (three tiers) and the top of the shelf has books displayed on it. We also have books displayed on the shelf itself… But due to the displays, sometimes, these books fall for no reason. They’ll be sitting there, all good, for weeks… and then BAM. They’re on the floor. Now yes, you can say “gravity.” But when there is no one there to knock it off, when there is no wind, when they seem to be displayed in a way that they won’t fall? I don’t think so.

Not to mention, the books in the research center have also been knocked off. Our research librarian even took a look at the cameras and sure enough, when we were closed, they randomly got knocked off the shelf and went to the floor.

  1. Noises.

I, personally, haven’t gotten to experience this yet but I also don’t pay attention to it because why would I? lol But one of my co-workers said she’s heard the keyboard sounds (like typing) down here when she was completely alone.

  1. There is no third reason, but it’s creepy when the lights are off.

When we get ready to close and turn the lights off, damn. It gets super creepy. And every agrees. :rofl:

Would you want to visit a haunted library? Have you ever been somewhere that’s haunted?

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People love to go to haunted places, so you could use this to get more patrons! Especially at Halloween. (>‿◠):v:

How old are the shelves and what are they made of? Wooden shelves start to warp over time, and it’s not unusual for books to start falling off them after a certain number of years. I don’t know about metal. ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯

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Be glad that the spirits are reletively begign. I know the story of the Bell Witch, it could get a lot worse. Hopefully the haunting doesn’t escalate.

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I’d visit. Sounds cool. I always wanted to do paranormal investigations.

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Has there been any symmetrical book stacking :eyes:

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My childhood is Ghostbusters. I aint afraid of no ghost.

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Fun. Put that on TikTok immediately! People love a spooky story.

Libraries as a space have an almost authoritarian quality to them. There are rows and rows of shelves, and the shelves may be the same height and material, the books are arranged in order, it’s quiet, there are social codes that you feel you have to follow. So if something incongruous happens, like random noises or books falling, you’ll be unsettled. Maybe there is a ghost, and maybe they’re anti-establishment :ghost:

I don’t believe in ghosts but I’m interested in hauntings as social phenomena. There’s a whole field of study about it. I’ve gone on a few ghost walks. I live right next to a moor, and it’s full of hauntings. The people here take pride in their phantoms, witches and piskies.

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I’m not too sure how old the shelves are, but they’re pretty sturdy. They’re also made of metal.

And I did think that maybe the book was positioned wrong or due to its weight on one side, over time, it’d start to collapse in on itself, but a lot of the books that do fall have no reason to for the most part anyway… :thinking:

Lol, imagine it does. :rofl: Books flying at people, beating up little kids. :rofl:

I think it wouldn’t, though we should hold a seance and see what happens. :wink:

No. Unfortunately. :rofl:

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Danggggggg

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It’s always the book places that are haunted. Everyone and I swear that the bookstore that I work at is haunted. We named the ghost too (I forgot her name, I’ll ask a coworker again) but like the security alarms in this blocked off area goes off randomly on random days so often it’s very annoying. The ghost also stole my scarf. I left a scarf in a locker and it disappeared under 12 hours between my shifts. If it was cold it could’ve asked, it didn’t have to steal my damn scarf

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