Spooky libraries

by Martha Edwards on

Dusty, musty and seemingly old as time, some libraries are the perfect place for ghosts and ghouls to haunt their way through eternity. The folks over at Intelligent Traveller have done some uncovering and found some of the spookiest libraries around the world — and the ghosts who haunt them:

  • Morelia Public Library, in Michoacán, Mexico: This library, which has been around since the 16th century, is said to be haunted by a blue clad nun. The sensation is so real that people have reported hearing footsteps following them.
  • State Library of Victoria, in Melbourne, Australia: Built in 1856, this library is reportedly haunted not only by a librarian named Grace in the Children’s and Arts sections, but also a mustachioed man in the music section and various poltergeists in the newspaper room. After-hours security guards report seeing glowing balls of light in the library — yikes! That’s got to be one frightening job.
  • Rammerscales House, in Lockerbie, Scotland: A ghost haunts the library of this large home, and apparently it’s so frightening that guests have asked to stay in the stables.
  • Felbrigg Hall, in Norfolk, England: The ghost of an 18th-century scholar, William Windham III, is known to sit in his armchair by the fire and read books well into the night. In fact, it’s such a regular occurrence that the butler used to leave specific books out for him each night.

LOC Wise Guide: American Vacation

by Kelly Amabile on

The Library of Congress has a nifty online magazine called The Wise Guide that appears each month. It’s a creative tool that the LOC folks use to communicate interesting facts and tidbits from their massive repository of photos, videos, prints, audio recordings and films. The website is spirited and fun in design — who knew a .gov could be so engaging? (They smartly partnered with the Ad Council on this public service announcement.)

This month The Wise Guide takes readers back in time through a series of old-school example of US holiday travel. The Vacation feature points to historical photos from the Library’s Pictorial Americana collection that illustrates what traveling and vacations were like in the 19th century. There are classic pictures of summer trolley cars, grand hotels, roadside inns and automobile parades. This one is my favorite. (Be sure to read the caption.)

The June Wise Guide also features a page all about the Grand Ole’ American Flag, just in time for Independence Day.

National Geographic Society: Library Resources

by Kelly Amabile on

On the first floor of one of the main buildings that make up National Geographic’s Headquarters is an impressive library whose primary purpose is to provide National Geographic staff with the resources and information they need to do their jobs. For example, the team that creates the annual Geography Bee questions uses this library frequently.

What many folks may not know, however, is that members of the public are welcome to make an appointment to visit the library with their own specific research needs. This service could be particularly useful for travel writers looking to access National Geographic’s extensive archives. Or a traveler gearing up for a big trip might enjoy an hour or two of digging through the library’s special guidebooks room. Take a look at this place, packed wall-to-wall with every guidebook imaginable:

There are complete collections of Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, Thomas Cook, Insight, Eyewitness, Time Out, Bradt, Odyssey, Fodors, Moon and Rick Steves guides. And I’m sure there are more…this is just what I was able to notice in my few moments thumbing through the colorful shelves:

The NGS Library Collections contain over 50,000 books, 200 journal titles and six million documents, manuscripts and personal papers in the archives. In addition to stacks of books about every corner of the globe, there are sections that cover topics like geology, agricultural economics, sea voyages, costumes, recreation, aeronautics and raising animals.

The staff librarians are very friendly. I spoke to at least five of them in my short visit, and all were very willing to help and answer my questions. Of course, I had to ask them to tell me about some of the most challenging research requests they have ever received — One librarian shared a story about an obscure request she got from some folks at National Geographic Television who were trying to verify the existence of a transgender religious sect in Kashmir. Just a typical day on the job for a NGS librarian!

If you’d like to take advantage of National Geographic’s library resources, there are two things you can do before even making a visit. Be sure to access their online databases to do preliminary research about a topic or location of interest:

Let’s say you are planning a trip to India. You can first search the Publications Index to see which National Geographic magazines, newsletters, books, etc. have made mention of the country. Next, you can search the Library Catalog, to see which resources (published by NGS and others) are actually on the shelves at the library.

As another of the staff librarians explained to me, folks should be able to find many of these resources in their own public libraries, but possibly not as comprehensive or conveniently gathered as the all-in-one collection located at the NGS stacks. Definitely check out the online resources and consider making an appointment to visit if you have a specific travel-related topic to research.