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In This Beautiful Library, Bats Guard the Books

The winged residents have been lurking in the stacks since the 18th century.

That’s when records indicate the purchase of large leather sheets from Russia, presumably to protect the hall’s desks and tables from the nightly rain of guano. Employees use the same system today, while the books themselves are behind wire mesh, says the library’s deputy director, António Eugénio Maia do Amaral. Maia do Amaral calls them “honorary librarians.” When the Joanine’s enormous wooden doors were replaced in 2015, carpenters preserved the gaps the bats use when they leave each night to drink from the river.

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