My Library is Haunted?!
So... yeah. Apparently someone called in the Library to a local Paranormal Investigation crew here in Columbia. Something about seeing a ghost in the stacks.
We have a big library. A big, old library. This doesn't necessarily mean that it's automatically haunted. And I'm a late shift worker, I've closed the library at 2:30 am before and never seen or felt anything particularly out of the ordinary.
At any rate, someone turned the library in to Kindred Moon Productions as being haunted and in need of investigation. So they came over to talk to the Administration, who for some absolutely unknown reason agreed to allow them to come in and film for ghosts. And, of course, because the Library is cheap, they did it on a day when the library was open and we had students inside, because they didn't want to give anyone OT. Still, I spent the better part of two and a half hours dealing with these folks.
For starters, there was trying to get their gear inside. I was told not to disarm some of the doors so they had to deal with getting a flat-bed up and down the ramp in the loading dock, and while they were doing that one guy's soda bottle exploded - which, now that I think about it, I'm not sure it got cleaned up. Anyway, had to get them through the loading dock and into the building. Asked them where they needed to go, they said desk in the third floor west stacks... apparently they meant second floor in the big study room just outside the west stacks. So got them back there, and then found out that they wanted to put a couple cameras down in the archives of Western Manuscripts.
For the record, the archives are down in what used to be a bomb shelter, way back when.
Things got entertaining at that point. First off, they didn't tell the boss they wanted in there, so I had to call her and clear it. Then I had to talk to the people who worked in Western Manuscripts, letting them know that there would be recording equipment down there. And then I had to actually take them down there so they could set up their equipment. First, there was getting them into the area. And then watching them place the two little infrared cameras and the audio equipment... only to realize that their 100 foot video cable wasn't long enough to go up the four floors to the rest of their gear. So they tried to double up the cables, but they didn't have the right adapters. So someone got the bright idea to use a wireless camera.
In a bomb shelter. With at least 10 feet of concrete between the camera and the receiver.
Needless to say, it didn't work that well.
Eventually, they gave up on the cameras and just left the audio gear down in the archives. I had to go back up to check on them, and make sure they weren't going to be doing anything else that required me and my keys. Found out that they were having problems with some of their other cameras. Seems they've never had that kind of trouble on any other set.
Makes me wonder if they've been anywhere else with as much concrete and wireless traffic in it.
Either way, they were all curled around their laptops and the television when I left work, gladly turning over the ghost hunters to my coworker.
I do actually believe in the possibility of spirits in a location, but not in the library. There's just too much traffic for anyone to stay there after and evade notice. That, and no-one's died in or around the building, that I know of. There are are parking garages more likely to be haunted.
We have a big library. A big, old library. This doesn't necessarily mean that it's automatically haunted. And I'm a late shift worker, I've closed the library at 2:30 am before and never seen or felt anything particularly out of the ordinary.
At any rate, someone turned the library in to Kindred Moon Productions as being haunted and in need of investigation. So they came over to talk to the Administration, who for some absolutely unknown reason agreed to allow them to come in and film for ghosts. And, of course, because the Library is cheap, they did it on a day when the library was open and we had students inside, because they didn't want to give anyone OT. Still, I spent the better part of two and a half hours dealing with these folks.
For starters, there was trying to get their gear inside. I was told not to disarm some of the doors so they had to deal with getting a flat-bed up and down the ramp in the loading dock, and while they were doing that one guy's soda bottle exploded - which, now that I think about it, I'm not sure it got cleaned up. Anyway, had to get them through the loading dock and into the building. Asked them where they needed to go, they said desk in the third floor west stacks... apparently they meant second floor in the big study room just outside the west stacks. So got them back there, and then found out that they wanted to put a couple cameras down in the archives of Western Manuscripts.
For the record, the archives are down in what used to be a bomb shelter, way back when.
Things got entertaining at that point. First off, they didn't tell the boss they wanted in there, so I had to call her and clear it. Then I had to talk to the people who worked in Western Manuscripts, letting them know that there would be recording equipment down there. And then I had to actually take them down there so they could set up their equipment. First, there was getting them into the area. And then watching them place the two little infrared cameras and the audio equipment... only to realize that their 100 foot video cable wasn't long enough to go up the four floors to the rest of their gear. So they tried to double up the cables, but they didn't have the right adapters. So someone got the bright idea to use a wireless camera.
In a bomb shelter. With at least 10 feet of concrete between the camera and the receiver.
Needless to say, it didn't work that well.
Eventually, they gave up on the cameras and just left the audio gear down in the archives. I had to go back up to check on them, and make sure they weren't going to be doing anything else that required me and my keys. Found out that they were having problems with some of their other cameras. Seems they've never had that kind of trouble on any other set.
Makes me wonder if they've been anywhere else with as much concrete and wireless traffic in it.
Either way, they were all curled around their laptops and the television when I left work, gladly turning over the ghost hunters to my coworker.
I do actually believe in the possibility of spirits in a location, but not in the library. There's just too much traffic for anyone to stay there after and evade notice. That, and no-one's died in or around the building, that I know of. There are are parking garages more likely to be haunted.