Download I Love Libraries Web badges for your site.

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month, and NBA superstar and author Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the honorary chair for the annual event. Learn more on the I Love Libraries Library Card Sign-Up Month page.

What is Library 2.0? Learn the answer to that and more on I Love Libraries' Ask the Librarian page.

Haunted Libraries

By George M. Eberhart

Editor, American Libraries Direct

In the fall, a journalist’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of ghosts. Newspapers and magazines that haughtily refrain from printing news of the paranormal for 11 months of the year eagerly jump on the Halloween coach in October to regale their audiences with dubious tales of the preternatural.

Bleak mansions and somber castles usually spring to mind when we think of haunted places, but ghostly phenomena—whatever the cause—can manifest in well-lit, modern offices as well as crumbling Carnegies. Of course, it helps if you inadvertently build your library on top of a graveyard.

Haunted libraries fall into two types. First, there is the “building with a reputation,” where a convenient murder, curse, or other tragedy has occurred. Library staff can then blame the odd noise, the occasional book falling off the shelf, or glitches in the air conditioning on the resident “scapeghost.” No one reports anything too spooky, and the children’s librarians have a good time with it at story hour.

Second, there are libraries where credible, responsible people observe enigmatic human shapes, hear disembodied voices, and witness other classic parapsychological events. Glib explanations about how the building must be settling ring about as hollow as those mysterious footsteps late at night on the upper floorboards. The library staff learns to live with the phenomena, usually by accepting the paranormal as a normal working condition and the wraiths as superhuman resources.

Like other public buildings that have seen long years of human activity, some libraries are allegedly haunted by the ghosts of former staff, patrons, or other residents. Most often the manifestations involve odd noises, cold spots, or objects moved; other times a visual apparition is reported. In many cases, phenomena can be attributed to the sights, the sounds, and the aura of a historic building. However, libraries offer such dynamic mental and sensual stimulation that if haunts are truly evidence for postmortem survival, I can’t imagine anywhere else I’d rather spend my earthly afterlife than in a library. (Beware, Ohio State!)

The following list represents a fairly comprehensive list of current and former library haunts.  This information can also be found in my Whole Library Handbook 4: Current Data, Professional Advice, and Curiosa about Libraries and Library Services, published by the American Library Association in 2006. But if I’ve missed anything, or my list needs correction and even updating, please send along your comments and suggestions. The paranormal demands precision!

Haunted Libraries in:

Julie Andrews is the honorary chair of National Library Week 2008, April 13–19. Read, watch, listen to, or download National Library Week announcements starring the legendary actor.

Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado and Connecticut

Delaware, DC, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa

Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota and Missouri

Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina and North Dakota

Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Pennsylvania

South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming

Outside the U.S.

Sources: The Shadowlands; George M. Eberhart, “Phantoms among the Folios: A Guide to Haunted Libraries,” American Libraries 28 (October 1997): 68–71; Dennis William Hauck, Haunted Places: The National Directory (New York: Penguin, 2002); Dorothy Hodder, “Library Ghosts of North Carolina,” North Carolina Libraries, Summer 2003, pp. 74–76; Julie Hart and Carolyn Ashcraft, “Libraries in the Twilight Zone,” Arkansas Libraries 51, no. 5 (October 1994): 27–29; and many other sources.