Caches Inside Buildings

[+zach.ruesch]

Hey Folks!

 

I am located in the United States and have read through the Geocaching guidelines (rules) several times. I am confused about the ability to locate a cache inside a building (even with permission). There a few here in the states I have heard about but not visited, but when I was in Europe, they were all over the place. I visited three in about 5 days. What gives? Why does there seem to be such a difference? I would very much like to place one in a local library and make it a puzzle of sorts. What insight, ideas, or perspectives do you all have?

 

 

[+NanCycle]

Hey Folks!

 

I am located in the United States and have read through the Geocaching guidelines (rules) several times. I am confused about the ability to locate a cache inside a building (even with permission). There a few here in the states I have heard about but not visited, but when I was in Europe, they were all over the place. I visited three in about 5 days. What gives? Why does there seem to be such a difference? I would very much like to place one in a local library and make it a puzzle of sorts. What insight, ideas, or perspectives do you all have?

 

There are quite a few caches inside libraries. Here's one:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC2M5EM_read-it-here

[+Kacher82]

What I've seen a time or two, is to have a multi or puzzle with a stage outside telling where to find it in the building. I just found one yesterday, apparently there is a stage at the posted coords with the info to find the cache in the library. The info was also hidden on the cache listing, which is where I found it. The cache itself is a fake book on the library shelf (placed with permission, of course). I thought it was pretty neat.

I think Groundspeak's official position on it is there needs to be a stage somewhere that you need navigation equipment for.

[+Sealand Rovers]

There's a cache that uses a book to hide the geocache with the libraries permission. WP1 gives you some information and its up to the cacher to look for the relevant book. I assume the owner works there or has permission from the library so as long as it's okay and you're not standing around making yourself look suspect it should be okay.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC3K05C_bibliotheca-robotum

[+niraD]

The key guideline is the requirement that every geocache incorporate accurate GPS coordinates somehow. I don't know the practice elsewhere, but around here there are a few library caches and other caches in buildings. Most accommodate the guideline by requiring seekers to find something outside the building using GPS coordinates, and then some other location method is used for the cache itself inside the building.

[+T.D.M.22]

I've found 3 kinda. One library cache in my city. One is an ammo can in another city's tourist center, and the last-which I never did complete was a unknown-We worked with the tourist center to help them place some caches, and one of them was a puzzle. There are 2 decals with a set of co-ords, on inside and one outside the building.

 

The issue is the guideline saying we can't require others to interact with an employee, and the guideline prohibiting commercial caches. So basically any business is off limits to us. I believe at first the reviewer denied both caches in the tourist centers because he thought it was a commercial cache. So if you can manage to get around both of those, the next step is to prevent it from going missing.

 

Both tourist center caches, the staff know about, and can watch the ammo can, and decal with the co-ords. The library cache has the book marked as reference so it shouldn't leave the building at all. You get to a building with lots of people, they won't know to watch for the cache, so they can't prevent it from going missing. They may even take it. So while it may be possible, it's not always worth it.

[+Kacher82]

The library cache has the book marked as reference so it shouldn't leave the building at all.

The library cache I found would never get checked out. There is no bar code on it, no title, just a sticker with the call # on the spine. You can tell it's not actually a book as soon as you pick it up. It's way too light. It's in the non-fiction section, in an area that probably doesn't get a lot of attention anyway.