Is the Kent Free Library Haunted?

Rumors abound that Nellie Dingley, the first librarian to work in the , still roams the stacks.

But David Wiard isn't quite convinced. Wiard worked at the library for about eight years, and he said he never sensed anything in the building that gave him the impression her spirit was still there.

Also, he pointed out, Dingley died and was buried in France. "How could she get back here?" he mused.

Regardless, rumors persist that some spirits may lurk amongst the reference  materials in the library — at least in its older sections. Recently, a medium and other specialists from World Paranormal Investigators visited the building and, using high-tech sensors, concluded that there are more questions than answers.

"We'd like to come back" to investigate further, said Greg Feketik, assistant director and investigator with the group.

Feketik and his wife, Kathy, who also is an assistant director and investigator with WPI, described their experiences and findings from their night in the library to about 15 attendees at a presentation in the Tuesday evening. 

Although the 201 photographs taken inside the library after hours on Oct. 1 did not capture any evidence of ghosts, that doesn't mean there aren't any. As Greg Feketik explained, it just shows that they didn't document any activity — at least with their cameras.

WPI co-founder Bea Brugge spent quite a bit of time in the Bumphrey Room, which is in the historic Carnegie part of the building, and she registered unusual EMF (electromagnetic field) activity when she was alone in the room. Whenever another member of the team came into the room, however, the EMF activity stopped. 

Feketik said he approached the library administration with a request to conduct the investigation after he learned about stories that the building might be haunted.

WPI was founded in 2004 by John Brugge. Since then, the company has completed more than 95 investigations.

During the presentation, Feketik described about a dozen of those investigations in Ohio, and shared numerous recordings and photographs of paranormal activity, including some from the Mansfield Reformatory, celebrated as the set of the movie The Shawshank Redemption, as well as some from the Canal Fulton Library.