How raccoons have invaded the library

The Dean B. Ellis Library sees everything: students cramming for exams, professors looking for research materials and unexpected guests: raccoons. 

These critters have been a part of the library’s culture for a while now, becoming so synonymous with the building the library staff have accepted the animals as their unofficial mascot.

April Sheppard, assistant library director, said the library has faced raccoon issues for over 10 years. Sheppard said the reason for increased raccoon activity was due to the library’s late hours and the building’s structure.

“The library building is not a singular building. It’s three different buildings,” Sheppard said. “So the museum has its own building. The short side of the library is its own building and the tower is its own building.”

These three buildings are connected by expansion joints, which are used to connect buildings more securely and to better withstand earthquakes. Sheppard said the raccoons figured out the expansion joints are soft, so they can get inside the building.

Sheppard said the weather often brings raccoons inside. 

“If it’s really nasty out or if it gets really cold or really hot, we have an increased activity of them trying to come in, so it’s been an ongoing battle,” Sheppard said. “Fix the holes, run them out, fix the holes, run them out. They have very dexterous little hands and all it takes is one little crack for them to get their fingers in there and start opening things back up.”

Sheppard said she thinks the trees by the library allow for easier access for the raccoons. 

“We’ve talked about taking some of the trees that are really close to the building because they do use the trees to get up to the roof. So we’ll try that but I don’t know if that’s fully going to fix it,” Sheppard said.

The library often experiences lulls in raccoon encounters, leading staff to think the issue has been solved.

Frazier Dixon, Facilities Management pest control employee, said, “One time we thought we stopped it, but somehow they’re getting in some kind of way on the outside building, somewhere we probably can’t get to.”

The most recent raccoon encounter occurred Aug. 23, when a raccoon fell through the roof into the library lobby. Another break-in occurred in 2019, which made the news. In this incident, a door was left propped open, allowing the animals to enter. 

Sheppard said she once saw the raccoons climbing on the museum side of the building. Dixon said he normally finds them on the second and third floors, where he then sets traps.

“I put a trap in the ceiling and I bait it,” Dixon said. “I check it every day or every other day. If I get them trapped, I take them out and let them loose.”

The raccoons are released into a patch of woods Arkansas State University owns.

To prevent raccoon encounters, the library staff doesn’t keep food on their desks. Instead, they keep any food inside their desks. However, that has not stopped raccoons in the past. 

“We’ve had one get into someone’s office,” Sheppard said. “This was several years ago when one went through the ceiling tile into someone’s office and made quite a mess.”

Sheppard said despite students eating and drinking in the library, it hasn’t served as a huge draw for the animals.

“What we found is that by letting people eat and drink and not making a big deal of it, most students will, on their own, take care of their trash,” Sheppard said. “If they do spill something, most students will come and tell us.”

The library staff checks for trash hourly every night.

Samantha Bailey, a graduate student studying communication disorders from Waterloo, Illinois, has worked at the library for five years. She said she saw a raccoon tail once in the building, but never a full animal.

“I hear their little feet on the ceiling tile. I’ve never heard that type of noise before,” Bailey said. “I come from a smaller town that’s country, but we don’t have them inside, we see them outside. And the library staff are like, oh, ‘that’s just the raccoons.’” 

Bailey said she didn’t realize how big of a phenomenon the raccoons were. She said some of the library staff call the raccoons their friends.

“We’ve kind of run with it, but not as much now,” Bailey said. “We had a supervisor before the one we have now and he was really running with it and I thought that was kind of a good move. I was like, ’hey, they’re not going away, they keep reoccurring, people all know about them, it’s kind of fun, kind of different.’”

Sheppard said if a student does encounter a raccoon to let the service desk know so it can be reported to Facilities Management. She added that students should not try to feed them.

“We want to keep the students safe, we want to make sure that the library is staying clean,” Sheppard said. “But we also want to make sure that we’re protecting the raccoons.”

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