Web cam seeks ghost in library
11/01/99- Updated 12:36 PM ET
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) - On a cold winter morning in 1937,
a janitor grabbed his flashlight and headed down into the
pitch-black basement of the Willard Library to stoke the coal
furnace. But then, so the story goes, he was stopped cold in his
tracks by the ghostly vision of a woman dressed in gray, from
the veil covering her face down to her shoes.
Since then, a number of Willard staff members have reported
seeing the shadowy "Lady in gray" or witnessing
weird happenings among the shelves.
And now anyone can try for a sighting. The
Evansville Courier & Press has installed a video
camera in the 114-year-old library and still pictures are
posted on the newspaper's Web site every 30 seconds.
"Ghostcam" (http://www.courierpress.com/ghost/)was
intended to generate more traffic at the Internet site during
the Halloween season, said James Derk, new media editor for
the newspaper.
But the page has been so popular -- it had been loaded more
than 173,000 times as of Thursday and overall traffic at
Courierpress.com is up 40% -- that Derk wants to continue it
indefinitely.
"It's really exploded beyond all expectations, which
is good," he said.
Visitors are encouraged to point out pictures that they
believe contain images of the ghost, and to share ghost
stories.
One image, digitally enhanced several times, appears to
show the gray form of a woman returning a book to a shelf. In
another, what appears to be a shadowy head is half-hidden
behind a computer terminal.
Derk is at a loss to explain how the camera, which is
mounted on a bookshelf about 8 feet above the floor, ended up
pointing in a different direction one day. All of the library
workers said they hadn't touched it.
"I think something is out there, to paraphrase
The
X-Files," Derk said. "We stand ready and
willing to believe."
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