The Iowa City Public Library was evacuated on Tuesday afternoon, after it received a bomb threat at approximately 3:30 p.m. The library remained closed on Tuesday, even after bomb-detection dogs from the University of Iowa Police Department swept the building. ICPL reopened on its regular schedule Wednesday morning.
According to a written statement issued by the library on Tuesday evening, “The situation is currently under investigation, and we are working closely with the authorities to ensure the safety of everyone involved.”
No information regarding the nature of the threat was provided in the statement. Lee Hermiston, the city’s public safety information officer, told Little Village the bomb threat was made online, but did not disclose more details about the threat other than to say it was determined to be not credible and remains under investigation.
“Since Wednesday morning, the Iowa City Public Library received multiple additional threats online,” Hermiston said in an email. “After closely evaluating the circumstances and nature of this incident, library staff — in consultation with the Iowa City Police Department — decided to avoid further disruption to library services and open as regularly scheduled.”
The ICPL bomb threat is one of many that libraries across the country have experienced lately. Kelly Jensen at Book Riot has been tracking the ongoing campaign of threats and intimidation.
Last week, Jensen noted, there were “six different libraries in the Chicago suburbs which received bomb threats, followed by two more bomb threats at an Oklahoma school district and a Davis, California, public library. Several of those libraries received not just one bomb threat, but several over the course of the week.”
Like ICPL, the Vernon Area Public Library in the Chicago suburb of Lincolnshire received a bomb threat on Tuesday.
The public library in the northern California city of Davis has received three bomb threats in less than one week. “The threats included anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and began when the library determined that because a Moms for Liberty chapter would not comply with the library’s code of conduct, they would not be allowed to use the library’s facilities for a speaker program,” Jensen reported.
Many of the threats follow online targeting of the libraries on social media by rightwing groups. Anti-LGBTQ hostility is a common factor as well.
“These threats are, no doubt, connected to the right-wing rhetoric around libraries and librarians,” Jensen wrote. “The rise of stochastic terrorism is what emerges when a political movement chooses to label a group ‘groomers’ or ‘indoctrinators,’ and through these bomb threats, they create terror for library workers and users alike.”
In the statement from ICPL on Tuesday, Library Director Elsworth Carman said, “We take any threat to our patrons and staff very seriously. We are working closely with the police to ensure the safety of our facility, and we will keep the community updated as more information becomes available.”
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