Unfortunately, this is an issue we have to address

both in terms of infestations and fears of patrons who may not use the library out of fear.

A Dark and Itchy Night

READING in bed, once considered a relatively safe pastime, is now seen by some as a riskier proposition.

That’s because bedbugs have discovered a new way to hitchhike in and out of beds: library books. It turns out that tiny bedbugs and their eggs can hide in the spines of hardcover books. The bugs crawl out at night to feed, find a new home in a headboard, and soon readers are enjoying not only plot twists but post-bite welts.

As libraries are scrambling to deal with the problem, so are some book borrowers. Not wanting to spread the misery, considerate patrons sometimes call ahead to discuss with librarians how best to return lent materials from their bedbug-infested homes. Usually, a meeting is arranged so the patron can hand off the offending books or DVDs in Ziploc bags to an employee outside the library.

I know we had a scare at Central Library in Lexington not too long ago. So it does concern me, both as a patron and librarian. By the way, one of the people interviewed was a University of Kentucky professor, entomologist Michael Potter. :)