There’s some truth in the scuttlebutt around campus that thrill-seekers are using Ohio State`s Main Library – for things other than research.
The stately building anchoring the Oval has apparently been a magnet for individuals engaging in furtive sexual acts, and this is no new phenomenon; these dangerous liaisons have been going on in the library for years.
Boasting a collection of 2 million periodicals scattered throughout 13 floors, the Main Library is a maze of dusty book stacks, never-ending stairwells, and isolated nooks and crannies. One could easily get lost in a building that occupies roughly 200,000 square feet.
“I heard the sixth floor is pretty popular (for sex). That’s where most people get caught,” said Chris Wills, a sophomore history major.
People “do it for the thrill” because “it’s a big adrenaline rush,” he said.
When asked if he had engaged in scurrilous acts amongst the stacks, Wills cracked a devilish grin.
“No, not in this library,” he smiled.
Patricia McCandless, OSU’s assistant director for public services, said school officials have been contending with the problem for some time.
“The stacks were built before the era of self-service,” McCandless said, noting that before 1970, the upper floors of the library were only accessed by library personnel. “They are crowded and the lighting is not good. Every aisle is out of sight.”
As the library granted browsers more freedom to roam the building, inappropriate sexual activity began to crop up.
“We don’t like it and we try to break up liaisons when we see them,” McCandless said. “Universities have the tendency to attract both the studious and the deviant. This situation is not unique to Ohio State.”
Tony Maniaci, head of the Main Library’s Circulation Department, said he thought those performing sexual acts included OSU students as well as people outside the university.
Incidents have involved both heterosexual and homosexual activity, but “it’s predominantly homosexual,” Maniaci said, in reference to recent campus police reports.
Library officials have heard that there is a gay publication – perhaps on the Internet – that states a “good time can be had in the Main Library at Ohio State.” If true, such publicity may be exacerbating the problem.
McCandless said the library has undertaken several steps to curb the clandestine behavior.
The eighth floor, once a hotbed of hedonistic activity, was closed permanently to the public three years ago. OSU police officers using the library for research make a point to walk around the floors to show their presence.
In addition, student security patrollers go through the building regularly and anonymously, looking for inappropriate activity.
If patrollers stumble upon a couple in the act, they generally stop what’s happening and call the OSU police, McCandless said.
“We try to nip it in the bud that way,” she said.
