Here's another take on that Times article about bedbugs, one I agree with

The Bedbug Bunk: How the New York Times Used Fear and Misinformation to Spread Public Library Hysteria

On Wednesday afternoon, the New York Times published a story written by Catherine Saint Louis claiming that public libraries were now devoting precious resources to a new threat: bedbugs nesting inside the spines of hardcover books and making their way into public libraries like Norway rats stowing away on dusty ships.

The piece, which drew understandable horror on Twitter on Thursday morning, was the seventh most emailed New York Times story by Thursday afternoon.

But Reluctant Habits has talked with many of Saint Louis’s sources and has learned that the Times article is misleading. Bedbugs are not the major threat that Saint Louis suggests they are. In fact, some of the library directors who Saint Louis spoke with have never had a bedbug epidemic at all. They were merely taking preventive measures in the wake of recent media stories.

I took the story to mean prevention and vigilance was necessary, but I could see where the general public might overreact from the way it was written. Most libraries, of course, have not had an outbreak. They're more likely to have localised water damage from an old pipe, probably. Residences, hotels and places with furniture and people to feed off of--that's where you'll find most bedbugs. But we prepare for disasters and problems with our collections because we are both the stewards of information and provide services to the public.

Via Blake at LISNews.org.