The News Record

Issue date: 10/27/05 Section: Spotlight

Media Credit: Megan McNames The ninth floor stacks of the Archives and Rare Book Department are cold, dimly lit, narrow and possibly haunted.

It's time for a Halloween ghost story. Through the years, certain legends have come and gone on campus, but one persists throughout the decades: a haunting in the Archives and Rare Books Department at Blegen Library.

Among the books is the spirit of a UC Classics professor who was killed in an auto accident in the 1950s.

The rare book stacks on the ninth floor of Blegen are the perfect setting for a ghost story. Light ruins old books, so the room is lit only by small incandescent bulbs. The stacks are full of shadows. In certain recesses, it's so dark nothing can be seen.

When the lights are on, books, some from as far back as the 1500s, some older, line the shelves. Spines of old tomes are decorated in gold gilt, and some have titles in German or Latin. In some cases, the binding on the spines has rotted away.

Plus, it's chilly. The rare book stacks are kept at 66 degrees Fahrenheit to help with preservation. Not exactly bone-chilling, but cold.

University Archivist Kevin Grace spends a lot of time with the rare books. "There have been times when I've turned quickly to see who's there," he said, "and I haven't seen anyone."

Though sightings of the ghost have been scarce, Grace has heard reports of a man around 5-feet-8, wearing a tweed jacket and cap. This professor is thought to have been in his 40s at the time of his death, making his passing untimely.

"That would cause you to come back and try and finish your work," Grace said with a laugh.

He said most people report hearing footsteps, the sound of books being moved about or slammed on the metal shelves. Sometimes air current will rush by and "it feels like somebody's walking behind you," he said. There are times archivists expect to find a book in one location, but find it somewhere else.

"When you're up there working by yourself, it's very easy to think that somebody's watching you," Grace said.

Still, Grace doesn't want any ghosts to scare people away from using the resources available at the University Archives. Though the stacks themselves are not physically open to the public, the archivists will be happy to retrieve books for anyone interested. "We've never seen ourselves as a museum," Grace said. "If you can't use these books, there's no point in having them."

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