UPDATE: The Library will be OPEN FOR ITEM PICK-UPS and CHECK-INS ONLY in our front lobby tomorrow, Monday, December 23rd during our normal business hours 10am-8pm. Our materials have been successfully treated, but the heating process in the public seating areas is not finished. Feel free to call in item requests that the staff can pull and have ready or “hold” items in our online catalog, http://sckan.polarislibrary.com/polaris/Search/default.aspx…. The Library will be closed for the Christmas Holidays from Tuesday, December 24th thru Thursday, December 26th, so we want to make sure you have access to the collection. Again, tomorrow will be pick-up and check-ins only; access for the public to the main library is restricted until the treatment is complete. Yet again, thank you for your patience!
LIBRARY WAS CLOSED- WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9th thru SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21st
As our patrons know, the Mulvane Public Library takes tidiness and cleanliness very seriously. What patrons may not know, is that our staff is trained regularly by professionals to recognize pests that may be brought into the building unknowingly by our community members. This includes fleas, lice, cockroaches, and bed bugs. These bugs are everywhere (schools, daycares, hotels, airplanes, doctor’s offices, hospitals, nursing homes, and even movie theaters), and libraries are probably less likely to have issues than any of those aforementioned locations. However, this week our staff did identify a bed bug (a nuisance, but not dangerous) in the Library, which is the reason for our unanticipated closure. Due to our previous trainings, we immediately knew how to take care of this problem, including: quarantine of the infected areas (shut down of the Library), brought in bug sniffing dogs to direct us to the specific areas needing treatment, heated the problem items/areas (this will continue thru at least Friday), and will have our pest company review the space again on Friday.
Some libraries choose to be silent when these kinds of issues arise, but your library staff felt it was best to be honest and open. We encourage you to educate yourself on this issue because as we said, you may be exposed at other locations in the community to these pests, and other entities may not train their staff to be quite so thorough and clean.
For years, the Mulvane Public Library has checked every book that is returned for signs of pests, and we will continue to do so as well as bringing in the dogs for more frequent checks in the future. Let us know if you have any questions or concerns. Again, we do appreciate your patience and will reopen as soon as our treatment is complete.
