HAUNTED LIBRARIES: It’s not only the books that attract visitors
By Diane Rider
Like the Whaley House in Old Town, various libraries around the world are reputed to harbor ghosts! The most common happenings are eerie feelings, books falling or hearing footsteps.
Close to home is the California State Library in Sacramento.
“When I’m alone, walking through the stacks, especially looking through some of our older collections, there is an eeriness that I feel from time to time,” reported a library technician.
Others have reported unexplained noises, unexplained drafts, a book that couldn’t be found on the shelf, and then – there it was! A ghost with glasses was once reported in the California History Section. These experiences seem to hover around the sections that contain the oldest volumes. Recently, two librarians compiled the rumors and created “The Ghost File.” It is an online exhibit about these historical legends and sightings over the years.
Traveling halfway around the world, a famously haunted library is the National Library of Kolkata, India; built in 1883. There are numerous testimonials from people sharing their experiences of eerie happenings such as the feeling of someone breathing down their neck – and especially if books were not replaced in the proper place! Others have heard footsteps or chairs being drawn away, or the sound of ruffling papers when they were unaware of another person in the vicinity.
The rumors of hauntings in Kolkata were accelerated in 2010, when during a restoration of the library, a hidden chamber of about 1,000 square feet with no door or trapdoor