Libraries are getting in the spirit, loaning out ghost-hunting kits

Books about haunted houses fly off library shelves this time of year. For patrons who want a possibly more hair-raising experience, libraries have stepped into the realm of the supernatural: many now lend out ghost-hunting kits, complete with instructions on how to use the equipment.

The kits are so popular, they seem to disappear.

Kaz Windness was at her local library in Thornton, Colorado, recently when such a kit caught her eye near the checkout counter.

Windness, a children’s book author and illustrator, said she was intrigued, even though as far as she knew, there were not any ghosts in her home.

“We’re entering spooky season, so I decided to give it a try,” she said about Halloween time.

Windness checked out the kit and took it home so she and her two teenagers could experiment with it.

The carrying case contained an electromagnetic field meter and digital voice recorder, a spirit box to scan radio frequencies, an infrared thermometer, a UV black light flashlight, a bag of cables and instructions on how to use the ghost-hunting devices.

Although the kits don’t include advice on how to hunt for ghosts, library customers can find a treasure trove of tips on paranormal websites.

Windness put some water to boil on her stove to test out the thermometer, which paranormal investigators use to detect temperature changes in places said to be haunted.

“There were no ghosts in my teapot,” she said with a laugh. She then tried out the spirit box – a radio scanner that has a slight modification enabling it to rapidly scan multiple AM or FM stations at once to pick up voices in the static or white noise. Paranormal investigators say that ghosts and spirits tend to communicate through radio transmissions.

“I hit the scan button and asked, ‘Who’s here? What’s your name?’ and I clearly heard the name Artemus,” Windness said, explaining that the scanner had picked up a radio frequency where somebody said the name.

“So who knows?” she said. “Maybe there’s actually something to it.”

With paranormal investigations on the rise, due in part to the popularity of ghost-hunting tours and videos on YouTube, do-it-yourself ghost-hunting kits are in demand at libraries across the country, from the Wilsonville Public Library in Oregon to the Portland Public Library in Maine. Television shows about the paranormal, such as “Ghost Hunters” on Netflix, and the recent “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” movie have helped add to the intrigue.

American Libraries Magazine recently reported on the popularity of ghost-hunting kits, which usually contain equipment worth about $250 and can be checked out for a week at a time by patrons age 18 and older.

Ohio’s Clark County Public Library is one of the latest libraries to get into the spirit, with three kits in circulation.

“We’d heard about other libraries having lots of success with their ghost-hunting kits, so we decided in 2023 to also give them a try,” said Allison Peck, public relations manager for the library in Springfield.

“They’ve been checking out consistently well and we always have holds on them, but one is currently MIA,” she said. “Maybe a ghost took it?”

At the Coventry Public Library in Coventry, Rhode Island, the staff put together a promotional video that shows a couple of librarians wandering around the book stacks in the dark while using a spirit-detecting kit.

Although nothing spooky turned up, one of the librarians took the kit home and used it while taking images on her phone, said library director Lauren Walker. The librarian claimed that when she looked at the photos, she saw an image of an unknown man sitting on her couch.

“It confirmed her hunch that her house was haunted,” Walker said.

Walker said the library’s ghost-hunting kit is among the top requested items in a “Library of Things” that also includes an inflatable kayak, a telescope, ukuleles, dinosaur cake pans and kits for metal detecting and showing outdoor movies.

“Libraries aren’t just a place to borrow books,” she said. “Why buy something like a ghost-hunting kit when you can borrow it?”

The Coventry Public Library’s version of the kit includes a geophone to detect vibrations, footsteps and moving objects, Walker said.

“Ghost hunting gets a lot of attention at Halloween, but our kit is pretty much in demand year-round,” she said. “It’s one of those things that parents like to check out for a fun weekend with their kids.”

In Evansville, Wisconsin, the Eager Free Public Library’s popular spirit-detecting kit keeps disappearing from the shelves, said Rebecca Van Dan, the library’s assistant director and head of youth services.

“I added some books to the kit about haunted locations in Wisconsin, and people seem to enjoy taking it around to try it out,” she said, adding that one of those haunted locations is rumored to be the Eager Free Public Library.

“Our library was built in the early 1900s by Almeron Eager, whose statue has a place of honor in the old part of the building,” Van Dan said. “One of our employees is into ghosts, and when she tried out the kit, she said she picked up lots of cold readings near the statue.” Her thermometer’s readings were low, she said, which according to ghost hunters, might indicate spirits are nearby.

The ghost-hunting kit is now almost as popular as the library’s knitting kit and 3D doodler, Van Dan said.

Windness, 49, said she enjoyed using her library’s kit at her Colorado home so much that she’s now thinking of checking it out again when a friend comes for a weekend visit.

While her kids Kara, 16, and Max, 14, enjoyed goofing around with the kit, they ultimately decided it wasn’t cool enough for teenagers, she said.

“My kids were saying, ‘skibidi toilet!’ into the voice recorder,” Windness said, translating that the term means gross or dumb in teen speak.

She said she enjoyed hearing the voices of people in her community who used the digital voice recorder and didn’t erase their recordings.

“You turn it on and you hear kids and their parents laughing and having fun,” she said. “They say, ‘Hello, is anyone here? Are there any ghosts here with us?’

“I know that’s not necessarily spooky, but there’s a lot to love about that.”