Fiends of the Library

Come with me, if you dare, to the most haunted place in Lawrence. Where ghosts linger on pages; where phantoms move furniture around in the night; where ghouls misplace Dewey Decimal numbers never to be seen again...

The unseen entities of LPL are many. They are legion. They are well over 200 volunteers who generously give their time, attention, and sometimes even a minor blood sacrifice in support of our library. (So sorry about your finger, Barb!). 

Now a tale to send a shiver down your spine: The Curious Case of the Vanished Volunteers.

Picture it. The year is 2024, and all of our volunteers have gone missing without a trace. One might say they’ve ghosted us. Library staff scramble to cover over 15,000 hours of time spent shelving books, pulling holds, sorting donated books, and holding quarterly book sales. There is not enough time in the day and the shelves are a mess. Authors won’t come to visit, story-time is canceled forever, and you’ll never get that new book you put on hold. 

“The horror! The horror!” - Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

Lucky for us, that would never happen! The Friends & Foundation’s little shop of bookish horrors is getting ready for our annual Fall Book Sale happening October 19-22. Come through to find your spooky fireside reads at unbeatable prices–all thanks to an extraordinary volunteer effort. 


I asked our volunteers to share some of their favorite horror stories in honor of Booktoberfest and got some fantastic responses.

Library Volunteer Horror Recs

List created by LPL_LoganI

Our amazing library volunteers love horror! Check out these killer reads as we approach our Booktoberfest celebrations.











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-Logan Isaman is the LPLFF Fundraising & Volunteer Specialist at Lawrence Public Library.