Stumbled onto a censored archive in a small library in Vermont

I was killing time at the public library in Brattleboro last week and found a locked filing cabinet labeled 'Local News 1973-1985' that the librarian said was off-limits. She whispered that it contained stories about a factory fire and a townhall protest that got scrubbed from the state records after the paper folded. Has anyone else run into hidden local news stashed away in a small town library?

4 comments

4 Comments

kai_bennett1mo ago

Come on, you really think some old filing cabinet in a tiny Vermont library is hiding anything important. Librarians love to act mysterious and whisper stuff like that to make themselves feel important. If a factory fire or a townhall protest was actually a big deal, there would be public records somewhere else, not just some locked drawer no one thinks to check. Odds are it's just old legal forms or someone's tax records that got misfiled and the librarian spun a story because you looked interested. Honestly, people want to believe in hidden secrets so bad they ignore how boring real paperwork usually is.

anna7587d ago

I really feel for you on this one. It stinks when you think you've found something cool and people just shut it down like that. Even if it turns out to be old tax forms, finding a locked filing cabinet in a small town library is still a neat little mystery. You were excited about it and that's totally fair, not everyone has to turn everything into a big conspiracy. Hope you get to check it out again and maybe there's something interesting in there after all.

gray_schmidt81mo ago

Maybe it's just me but talking to the older town librarian got me a peek at their old microfilm collection.

the_ben7d ago

laugh out loud at the idea that librarians are out here spinning wild tales just to feel important. like yeah, the secret cabal of small town librarians is definitely holding press conferences about their fake hidden archives. come on, kai. i mean, maybe it's just me but i'd believe a random librarian over some guy on the internet telling me real paperwork is boring. you ever actually look at old legal forms? those things are mind-numbingly dull. a librarian acting mysterious about old tax records would be the most boring mystery ever. let the guy have his fun finding a locked cabinet, it's not like he's claiming to have found the lost city of atlantis.