Anonymous Patron sends us a link to an NPR audio tape–Talk of the Nation–“NPR : Letters: Libraries and the Untranslatable“
which includes an interview with Ray English, director of libraries at Oberlin College in Ohio.
English muses about talk that the Seeley G. Mudd Center, the location of the main library is sinking. According to campus lore, no plans were made by architects over thirty years ago to allow for the weight of the books, and that slowly but surely, the library is sinking. Update: 03/08 09:50 EST by J: See also the Urban Legends Reference Page on sinking libraries.
It can happen though
The high school I attended consists of four main buildings labeled, easily enough, A, B C, and D. (I always thought mathmaticians labeled the buildings. It sounds like such a story problem: If it takes Jim 15 minutes to walk from building A to D and building D is exactly twice as far from building B as from building A, how many photons are present in the observable universe?*)
Building C is sinking. There is no doubt to this but it’s not because of the weight of anything except the building itself. See, in the Pacific Northwest we have the phenomenon called “volcanic activity” and hence there’s a lotta ash in our soil. That’s why we have so damn many orchards around here. Anyway, C building is the only building aligned in a north/south direction. All the other buldings are pretty much aligned east/west. I don’t know if that goes against the “grain” of the foundation and the earth, but there’s a large crack running inside the building from the ground floor to the third floor. It appeared over the course of time because, like the Titanic, apparently it’s going to break in two before going down.
*The correct answer is 10^88. Please hand your papers to the professor.