Trustees may ban sleeping at Iowa City Public Library

The staff is recommending that the library board ban sleeping in the Iowa City Public Library.

The board of trustees is scheduled to consider the recommendation at a meeting later this month.

Library Director Susan Craig told the Iowa City Press-Citizen that people who nod off at the library are not always homeless people seeking shelter. She says the sleeping ban would be uniformly enforced.

In her recommendation to the board, Craig says sleepers hurt the library because they make others around them uncomfortable and they take up space others could be using.

The library currently lets people sleep unless they snore. Staffers wake them up then.

Board of trustees President Meredith Rich-Chappell says several people have complained about others sleeping in the library.