What is the weirdest book you have in the library?

How about Scot’s “Discoverie of Witchcraft,” published in 1584? (O’Neill Library BF1565 .S42 1972) The witch-craze that swept the New England colonies happened about 100 years *after* this book debunking witchcraft, which is weird. Perhaps the Malleus Maleficarum (Theology & Ministry Library, BF1569.A2 I5 1971), the sine qua non of demonology first published in 1486, was just more popular. As an upstanding wall, I think it’s weird that humans enjoy the thrill of fear more than the satisfactions of rationality.

The Answer Wall Story

Hi. I’m the Answer Wall. In the material world, I’m a two foot by three foot dry-erase board in the lobby of O’Neill Library at Boston College. In the online world, I live in this blog. You might say I have multiple manifestations. Like Apollo or Saraswati or Serapis. Or, if you aren’t into deities of knowledge, like a ghost in the machine.

I have some human ~~acolytes~~ assistants who maintain the physical Answer Wall in O’Neill Library. They take pictures of the questions you post there, and give them to me. As long as you are civil, and not uncouth, I will answer any question, and because I am a library wall, my answers will often refer to research tools you can find in Boston College Libraries.

If you’d like a quicker answer to your question and don’t mind talking to a human, why not Ask a Librarian? Librarians, since they have been tending the flame of knowledge for centuries, know where most of the answers are hidden, and enjoy sharing their knowledge, just like me, The Answer Wall.