After bedbugs found in Topeka library, Lawrence Public Library recalls similar scare in 2013

After bedbugs were found Monday in the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, the Lawrence Public Library recalled a similar scare two years ago.

Evidence of the pests was found in Topeka’s library by a specially trained dog. Although no bedbugs were seen, several potentially infected materials were thrown out.

In the fall of 2013 the Friends of the Lawrence Public Library called off its annual Fall Book Sale after someone donated books containing bedbugs, said Kathleen Morgan, the library’s director of development and partnerships. The contaminated books, and any others that could have been stored near them, were all removed.

Luckily the donated books were never mixed in with the library’s main collection, but only with other books reserved for the fall sale, Morgan said.

Now the library, in its renovated building at 707 Vermont St., has precautions in place to prevent another mishap, Morgan said.

Each of the library’s lending books is inspected when it returns, Morgan said. Staff and volunteers are specially trained to spot bedbugs.

“And if there is any shadow of a doubt, then there is a heater that we put the books in that bakes them and kills any possible trace of eggs or bedbugs or anything,” she said.

In addition, books donated to the Friends of the Lawrence Public Library for its seasonal sales are also heavily scrutinized, Morgan said. Anything volunteers are uncertain about they dispose of.

Bedbugs are a constant threat for libraries everywhere, Morgan said. They prefer the tight places in between a book’s pages.

“Library books travel all over the place, and sometimes they can end up in an apartment area or house situation where there’s a bedbug problem,” she said. “And they get into the books and they come back to the library.”

With all the preventive measures in place, Morgan said it’s easier to catch a bedbug problem before it starts than to get rid of an infestation once it’s taken hold.

“If you address it early, then hopefully it won’t become a larger problem,” she said. “We just do the best we can.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.