The Library of Congress reopened to patrons and visitors October 26, after being closed for eight days while LC buildings were tested for anthrax contamination. “Many areas of the library were tested, including all the mailrooms,” LC spokesperson Jill Brett told American Libraries. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found no evidence of anthrax,” she said, but “64 of our mailroom employees, who handled mail from the Brentwood, D.C., facility, have been notified to take antibiotics prophylactically.”
Meanwhile, anthrax false alarms continued to close libraries across the country. The library at the L.A. Ainger Middle School in Rotonda West, Florida, shut down October 17 after a school librarian noticed mysterious white powder on her fingers. In an effort to stop the rash of hoaxes that have beset the area, officials adopted a hard-line approach to pranksters and arrested a student after the boy admitted he had applied chalk powder to pieces of paper and distributed them on tables in the library.
In response to the growing concern about bioterrorism, the National Library of Medicine mounted a Medlineplus page on anthrax October 18, containing links to news articles and various health-related sites. Concurrently, OMB Watch, a watchdog agency that monitors the White House Office of Management and Budget, is tracking the reduction of government information on the Internet, including the removal of chemical, mapping, and other information government officials believe would be dangerous in the hands of terrorists.
Posted October 29, 2001.