honestly kinda unfortunate that the only spooky library aesthetic is the victorian fancy bookshelves dark academia one bcos like. ok here's some library stories.
while i was at the university the library was undergoing a major refurbishment so for a little while the print journals were being stored temporarily down in the basement.
basically nobody ever consulted the print journals bcos 99% of stuff undergrads would be looking up is online these days so every time i went down there it was dead fucking silent & empty. you had to walk through what felt like several miles of empty basement to reach the collection, which was in a room w a photocopier shoved in the corner and a bunch of these:
u turn the handles to move these around (saves space) and every time you had to go and check the aisles first on the offchance that someone was in there so they wouldn't get u know. Compacted.
many years ago i did a week's work experience with the National Library of Scotland. here it is:
but that's just the tip of the iceberg. it keeps going down the side of the bridge, like so:
i got a tour of the stacks while i was there. it's floor after floor of this:
the bookshelves are made of metal & i was treated to the 'fun fact' that the shelves are, bizarrely, load bearing. for this reason they have to be constantly vigilant about fire hazards because even a relatively small fire could cause a bookcase to buckle from the heat, which in turn could cause the whole building to collapse in on itself like a house of cards.
this has haunted me ever since!! thank you.
