Cache in a Library

[+Rav 4 Raiders]

What's your view of a cache placed in a public library....in a book on the topic of geocaching, catalogued and positioned according to the dewey system?

Edited January 9, 2004 by Rav 4 Raiders

[+ChrisCindy]

What's your view of a cache placed in a public library....in a book on the topic of geocaching, catalogued and positioned according to the dewey system?

I think it would be a fun idea. I guess you would have to make it a puzzle cache cause it would get found and lost eventually. Also how to get them there as a GPSr doesn't do well inside (another puzzle to do that)?

[Keystone]

I hope you don't mind, I split this out as a separate topic so it wouldn't get lost in the topic about high-risk caches, where it was originally posted. (The biggest risk in a library is having someone say "shhhhh" to you.)

 

Anyways, this is a great question to ask. I've approved many creative caches hidden in libraries. One of the best ones was done with permission -- you need to consult with the staff to answer questions that eventually lead to an "indoor cache."

 

ChrisCindy is correct... it's most common to see these submitted as puzzle caches, with coordinates leading to the front door of the library, and the puzzle leading you to the depths of the stacks.

[+woodsters]

What if the book gets checked out?

[+carleenp]

So, if I got permission to hide a cache in the State law library inside my state capitol building (which is a pretty cool place), is there an issue with the cache being "near or under public structures deemed potential or possible targets for terrorist attacks. These include but are not limited to . . . government buildings?"

 

Will the permission take care of that?

 

Does it help that no one ever visits Nebraska, much less comes here to blow things up?

[+Runaround]

I've seen two that are actually micro containers hidden somewhere in the stacks in out of the way places.

 

A third was hidden in the reference section. It was a nice hardcover journal with a dewey label on it and it looked like it belonged there.

 

One other was a multi-cache with the log book hidden discretely in a drawer.

 

The one that troubled me was a piece of paper in the back of a book. The problem was that the book could be checked out. There were a number of "not founds". I had to make a couple of trips myself.

 

EDIT: clarification

Edited January 9, 2004 by Runaround

[+sept1c_tank]

Thank You, Mr. Carnegie has been very successfull. I have received emails from around the country about it, and one person wants to use it as an example in a book to be published this summer.

[+SamLowrey]

I could have sworn there was one in Dallas like this. However, a search comes up empty. Perhaps it was archived - I have it printed out at home. But doing a keyword search for "Dewey" comes up with some results in other states...

[+radioscout]

Don't forget to find out what kind of electronic security system is used in the library (usually 3M or Knogo electromagnetic technology) and attach a NON deactivatable securtity tag to your cache. You can be sure it will never get lost nor checked out.

[+WeightMan]

There is a series of three in Colorado Springs, Adventurer #1 through #3 that are hidden inside three different libraries. These are magnetic and attached under the steel shelves. The clue gives the Dewey Decimal number for the books.

 

I don't have time to put in the URL, sorry.

[+woodsters]

another thing to consider is to be sure of if using the dewey system, is that the card catalog system can not be used online to achieve answers...I did a cache where it wanted you to go to a library and type in a code to find the place to go to and then retrieve the info. I was able to use the card catalog system online for that library, although it's a very small town and skip one of the steps. Or at least I didn't have to go to the library...

[+Eswau]

I was talking to someone the other day about a variation of this but one thing we couldn't figure out is - Do libraries still use the Dewey Decimal System or have most switched to the Library of Congress numbering system?

 

Eswau

[+wimseyguy]

What's your view of a cache placed in a public library?

This one is hidden in the stacks of the main campus library at NC State. The puzzle clue give you the location in the stacks but you have to figure out what they refer to on your own. It's in an old text that is ina reference section of books that cannot be checked out. it was a fun one to find.

[+Zhanna]

What if the book gets checked out?

Almost all libraries have some books that may not be checked out but are still accessible to the public. Usually they are reference books, special collections, or local history materials. Get to know the library's policies, and you will be able to figure out a solution that works for your cache. (Of course, it certainly helps if you happen to work at the library in question.)

 

I could say more, but I don't want to take away the challenge of one of my own caches.

 

~Zhanna

[+woodsters]

Almost all libraries have some books that may not be checked out but are still accessible to the public. Usually they are reference books, special collections, or local history materials.

Thney referenced a book on geocaching. So it would more than likely be a book that would be checked out...

 

And then having something in a book itself, unless it's just a clue, you run a risk of muggles....

[+Prime Suspect]

I could have sworn there was one in Dallas like this. However, a search comes up empty. Perhaps it was archived - I have it printed out at home. But doing a keyword search for "Dewey" comes up with some results in other states...

The one you're thinking of was "A clue from Dewey", which was actually in Richardson.

[+Zhanna]

Do libraries still use the Dewey Decimal System or have most switched to the Library of Congress numbering system?

Many public and school (elementary and secondary) libraries use the Dewey Decimal System for classification of materials. It is generally considered simpler to learn, and is often retained for "historical" reasons (i.e., older librarians are familiar with it and don't want to change). It's also important to consider that many public libraries are in financial trouble at present, and switching to LC numbering would come at a huge cost without providing much benefit to the typical patrons of small public libraries.

 

The vast majority of academic libraries use the Library of Congress system because of its flexibility and ease of adapting to new fields in research, technology, etc.

 

~Zhanna

[+Zhanna]

And then having something in a book itself, unless it's just a clue, you run a risk of muggles....

In my opinion it's best not to hide anything at all in the book. Just use the information the book itself provides to develop or solve puzzles or clues, and hide your cache elsewhere.

 

~Zhanna

[+Right Wing Wacko]

There is a Library cache in my area that is a multi/puzzle cache On a light post outside the library is WP1, which is a tag with an encrypted number spelled out on it. The number is a dewey decimal number pointing directly to the logbook which is on the shelf inside the nearby library.

 

The staff of the Library knows about the cache. The cache went missing once, and as it turns out there was a new staff member that was not in on it. Once he/she was informed everything has been cool.

[+Halden]

It would be neat if you could talk the library into letting you hide a note with the coords in the card catalog...assuming they still have a physical card catalog.

[Nascat]

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...0-8C9BD9538604} This was a neat Cache, it was a hollowed out book planted by the owner, unfortunatly it disapeared.

[+pater47]

I've done two where the final stage was inside a library. The first, now archived, was inside a Beethoven album sleeve. This cache was undone by technological progress - the library sold all the albums!

 

The second is an actual logbook that was given a phony number that fit in nicely with the library's numbering system - a system I wasn't familiar with. Someone in the library must've noticed I was somewhat bumfuzzled because they offered to help me. First time I've ever had a geomuggle hand me the cache - and they didn't even know it!

[+Fritz_Monroe]

It would be neat if you could talk the library into letting you hide a note with the coords in the card catalog...assuming they still have a physical card catalog.

That's a big assumption. My library did away with the cards a couple years ago. Don't think they even have them as a back-up.

 

F_M

[+quills]

There's one like this near us. You start out looking for one reference book on the shelf. Once you find that book there is a card in the dust jacket that gives you the next reference number and so on until it tell you where the logbook is. We did this one on a rainy Saturday and we actually walked right by the logbook several times. It was right out in the open but you wouldn't look at it twice if you weren't looking for it.

[+Prime Suspect]

It's also important to consider that many public libraries are in financial trouble at present, and switching to LC numbering would come at a huge cost without providing much benefit to the typical patrons of small public libraries.

Actually the Dewer Decimal System is a copyrighted system owned by OCLC. Libraries have to pay a fee in order to use it.

[+bigredmed]

A couple of other considerations:

 

1. Libraries churn their reference books fairly often so you would have to be sure that the book you chose would neither be dumped or moved to the other side of the building without you knowing it.

 

2. Junior library staff get paid about as well as any other junior staff. They aren't in the loop usually, so your permission from the librarian is great until the night shift library clerk finds the thing and calls the University rent a cop and the bomb squad makes you famous .

[+CYBret]

We have one ina library around here, in a hollowed out book. It ended up missing for a few days shortly after it was placed. I think this is due to the fact that librarians know their shelves and quickly spotted the fake book. However, apparently the librarians also know their fun and returned it too. Awful nice of em.

 

Personally if I were to do a hide like this it would be the ol' "Find the book that no one has checked out in 20 years and put a logsheet in it.

 

Bret

[+SamLowrey]

I could have sworn there was one in Dallas like this.  However, a search comes up empty.  Perhaps it was archived - I have it printed out at home.  But doing a keyword search for "Dewey" comes up with some results in other states...

The one you're thinking of was "A clue from Dewey", which was actually in Richardson.

Thanks. I found the printout at home. My sarcastic remark ended up right - it WAS another 9Key cache. Archived. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=gc249c

[+carleenp]

It would be neat if you could talk the library into letting you hide a note with the coords in the card catalog...assuming they still have a physical card catalog.

That's a big assumption. My library did away with the cards a couple years ago. Don't think they even have them as a back-up.

 

F_M

OK, now I have an idea that solves any worry that I posted before. I can ask the Capitol law library, which still has a card file, to let me put a card with coords in it in the file. I can make a multi with that as a stop and the actual cache elsewhere. Maybe at another library.

[+Halden]

I am flattered that someone would like my idea. Let me know if you use it.

[RandMan]

There is a cache in a Phoenix public library. The cache is its own book and couldn't be checked out. If I remember it's located in the same section where there are books on GPS units. The cache name is: 910.285 (GC57C8).

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...3-C49F42CEDA87}

[+calvinrtvp]

Funny you should mention this! I was in the local library talking with the manager about this just this afternoon. She was very enthusiastic...even to the point of offering to provide the book (already with the dewey decimal number on it, believe it or not) from a stack of books that had just been "purged". She's going to give me the book to hollow out and I'll use coordinates from local landmarks to help build the cache. I was going to do this as a cache that ANYONE could get to (since so many of the local caches are inaccessible to those in wheelchairs, etc.). Since it's an OLD book, it won't be as likely that it will be taken....it's already registered to the library, so I don't have to go through that hassle before leaving it on the shelf...and I have the full support of the library staff. Now all I have to do is build the first part of the "trail". That's the easy part!

[+Haicoole]

I have been to two delightful library caches. I set two in libraries, but they dissapeared suddenly on the same day.

[+hedberg]

Make sure so you don't do it this way: "3 of a kind"

 

First there was a 35 mm film canister hidden at a playground outside a library. There you got information to search for a certain book and a certain page in that book.

While waiting for some people to leave where the film canister was hidden, two of the most wellknown cachers in Sweden showed up, so we teamed up for this one.

In the library did we find the book. They had been writing in all the copies of that book that we should look for a book-holder (you know the kind of thing that are next to the book saying perhaps "History book A-H").

They had written on the backside of the cards with the text on. Then should we climb up and reach a note on the top of the shelfs. There were information that we should go to the next library in town to look for two books.

Okay, off to next library.

 

We found one of the books and once again they had written across a whole page that we should look for a item in the library. There had they also written something.

Then we found a box behind some books with a logbook and new clues..

 

Off to a third library at the university in our town. There should we locate a special map over an another part of Sweden. In the card index over maps had they used a marker pen and marked out the card and written on the back side of that index card. Finally in the basement next to the toilets and a Xerox machine was some shelfs, behind some really heavy books were the cache...

 

They did destroy a number of items, books and so on to hide the cache.

 

We found this extremely stupid and contacted the approvers who reacted to the cache and archived it...

 

It could had been done much better. The idea of looking for books are not stupid, but instead could they had written something like:

 

Locate the following books:

ABC by the author DEF, page 40, first 3 numbers on that page

GHI by the author JKL, page 50, last 5 numbers on that page

and so on...

 

Then could we have used the information to retrieve some coordinates.

 

Or got clues like: On page 40 in the book X by author Y, are he talking about an another book. Locate that book and look at page 19 and there is some numbers; use them like this: N57 AB.CDE E012 FG.HIJ (and an explation on which letters are A, B, C and so on...)

[+wray_clan]

The local library cache in our area was a big hit. Everybody saved it for their _00th cache. We had a great time doing it, even though on our first attempt, we didn't even go inside!

[sarge76]

my wife's aunt is a library manager, so we're going to give it a try this week. I'll let you know how it turns out!

[+sea_dragon]

This cache is a pretty sweet tour of the libraries at UCSC. The various stages are notes with the coords of the next stop, the dewey and author of the correct book, taped into books that no one in their right mind, not even grad students mind you, would ever check out. If I remember correctly, only one of them was in a reference section, the others were buried in the stacks. The finaly cache was well outside the library.

[sarge76]

just did a library cache today... My wife's aunt is a manager and ok'd the cache. She recommended that we hide it in the "Genealogy" Room, where "NO Books can be checked out". Bought a "discarded" book for a quarter and hid the logsheet in the book on the bottom shelf. Now just waiting for it to be approved.