Haunted Oklahoma by Jeff Provine

Author:Jeff Provine
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781493047185
Publisher: Globe Pequot

In the Decks

Bizzell Memorial Library, Norman

Even before the classic scene in Ghostbusters of the spectral librarian at the New York Public Library, libraries have long been known to be haunted. Whether it is the narrow passages among tomes or the collected energy of such condensed knowledge in one place, there is just something about a library that seems to make the departed want to stick around. Oklahoma has its own share of spooks among the books, and nowhere is more famous for it than the Bizzell Memorial Library at the University of Oklahoma.

The library has gone through numerous renovations in its decades of serving academia. It was completed in 1928 in a “Collegiate Gothic” style of architecture complete with towers, soaring windows, and gargoyles. The story goes that the architects designed the journey of students into the library as a metaphor for the sacred power of learning. Outside, in the wilds, there are monsters and grotesque beings who look down sneering. Coming into the original entrance at the south end of the library, students climb a staircase between murals of Dante and Milton, writers who described the path to heaven. On the main floor, the walls are decorated with pastoral motifs and carved wooden fruits. To achieve greater knowledge, students climb up another set of stairs to the Great Reading Room, literally study heaven. Enormous windows shine over walls lined with dissertations while the vaulted ceiling holds carved cherubs each with its own expression.

Opposite to the Great Reading Room are entrances into the Decks. Originally off-limits to students, they are a different world from the grandeur of the reading areas. The ceilings are low, packing in seven floors while other parts of the library only have five or three. Rows of metal shelves are tucked close together in a complex pattern, giving students numerous corners to explore today. The floors are made of fronted glass panels, said to be installed as a precaution for fires that had twice wiped out the university’s book collection.

Campus legend states that students in the Decks often get chills from feelings of being watched. Footsteps ring out when students are sure that they are alone. Sometimes students even see shadowy footprints on the glass floor above them, race up the narrow metal stairs to see who it could be, and find no one there at all.

A student librarian once shared story of coming face-to-no-face with the spirit in the Decks. While shelving books on one of the upper decks used for special collections, she heard footsteps of someone walking around. Only employees had access to the deck since it was used for rarer books that borrowers had to make arrangements to request. Thinking it must be another employee, she called out, “Come over here and help me with these books!” The footsteps turned and walked toward her, thudding on the glass plates. As they came around the corner and into her aisle, there was no one there with them, just disembodied thumps closer and closer. They stopped at her cart.

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