If I Made a Horror Film In a Library...

The Gladstone Link

So I’ve told you about the Old Bodleian library. Well it happens to be right next to one of the most famous buildings in Oxford: the Radcliffe Camera. Guess what…the Radcliffe is also a library. And it is also amazing! But the whole upper floor is currently shut down because books are being moved around like crazy. It’s complicated. So I’ve decided to put off a blog post designated to that wonderful place for another time, when I can critique it to its fullest, truest, most glorious extent…so hold tight, okay guys. 

Anyway, the point is, these two libraries (the Old Bodleian and the Radcliffe Camera) are very close together and they both use the same system, so these smart library people decided that it would be convenient to just connect the two. So get this: there was this old sewer system underneath the city, see. So they thought: why not just transform one of those sewage lines into an underground library…The Gladstone Link. 

Mr. Gladstone (or Mrs. I won’t be discriminatory), whoever you are, you are both genius and mad, my friend. 

They constructed this long, space-age tunnel that connects the two main buildings. It all feels very…sci-fi. Everything is electronic, you swipe your card to get access, an automatic door lets you through, you walk through a tunnel encased with glass and metal.

“I feel like I’m in Star Wars every time”–Colin L.

My fellow student provides a very appropriate description, I would say. This Star Wars-esque space tunnel feels so out of place knowing how ancient everything is above us.

But besides the tunnel, there are also two-stories worth of books held underground in the Gladstone Link. They generally keep the most recent editions of books in this particular section of the library, so for us Oxford researchers, this is a crucial place. Basically, the first day that I ventured into the Gladstone Link was the first day that the rest of the Americans from my program also decided to brave their way through. 

None of us really knew what we were doing, including myself. The categorization system was nothing like what I am used to, and the way that they broke the sections up in this underground labyrinth still makes no sense. How I ever found M04.E12594, I have no idea. Sheer luck, I think.

But that’s not all. How the shelves worked is the oddest part. You know how in a typical library the shelves are all in neat rows, in order, with plenty of space in between the rows to saunter down and calmly peruse the stacks? Not so here. Here the shelves are in clusters all facing each other in weird ways. But here’s the really tricky part, each cluster of shelves (say ten or so) is not separated by nice, luxurious walking spaces. No, they are all squished right up against each other. (See picture). Once you’ve found the row that you need, you have to crank a wheel that shifts all the shelves over, creating a space for you to squeeze through and desperately try to find your book before you suffocate. But you have to make sure that there is no one in the row that currently has the empty space before you start cranking the shelves to create your own space or else you will squish the person in that row. It is quite complicated, and also really intense. 

Imagine standing in your makeshift row, looking at a book, trying to determine if it is the one you need, when all of the sudden, the walls of books literally start closing in around you. The rows are too long and you are too deep in to ever escape in time. Your fellow library patrons have no idea that death is imminently approaching. You try to let out a plea for help but the anxiety coupled with the lack of fresh air is suffocating.  And so…you die. 

Dramatic? Perhaps.  But these shelves really were odd.

“Library Death Traps.” –Felicia

“Riiight? What if you pull it back and there is a dead person in there?  Freaky.”–Hannah Z.

Now I will always wonder, and perhaps cringe every time I crank the wheel.

Also, because you are underground, and this is all relatively new, sometimes the lights will flicker on and off when you are looking for books in the scary stacks. It really intensifies the process. I had no idea what I was doing when I first came in to look for the books, so already my anxiety was keen. The “M”s were split between the floors in no apparent order or sense. M11-12 were upstairs while M96-10 were down, or some such nonsense. History was up and history was down English was up and down or sidewise theology was missing entirely philosophy was there but no one seemed to know where up and down up and down lights flickering around oops someone squished an old lady up and down and up left the right shelf nowhurryandfindit before something rolls on top of you is it the right one left left up to the next book underground underground underground and up and down until no one knows where they are at all anymore and we’re just wandering around aimlessly tiredly without any signs of scholastic success in our arms or bags lights flickering on and off and up and down we go againandagain trying not to squish each other in the process. us Americans were a sorry lot.