The Library That Sinks A Few Millimetres Every Year
When they added books, they forgot to account for their weight.
Reviewed by the CurioVault curator · 8 October 2026 · Editorial standards
Indiana University's main library, built in 1969, was designed to hold books but engineers forgot to include the weight of the books themselves in load calculations. It sinks about 25mm per year. By the 1990s it had sunk over 30cm. They now pump water from beneath and have removed upper floors to lighten load. The classic engineering oversight.
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