The New Westminster Public Library is closed today while steps are taken to deal with bedbugs.
Blair Fryer, the city's communications manager, said staff discovered the presence of bedbugs late Monday in the print collection.
"The library is now closed temporarily," he said. "We have posted a notice on the door. We are hopeful we can deal with this issue quickly."
A pest control company has been called and is expected to be at the library this morning. The city will release more details once the situation has been assessed by the pest control company.
"We found the bedbugs. We isolated the ones in question and removed them," Fryer said. "One was alive. There were several dead ones."
Bedbugs were found at the Cameron branch of the Burnaby Public Library on Oct. 18. That library reopened after books in the affected areas were bagged and boxed and sent to the Metrotown branch to be heat-treated. A pest control company steam cleaned the furniture and the bookshelves.
The Burnaby Public Library is having all of its branches inspected after dead bedbugs were found at its main branch in Metrotown at the end of September. After a reader found a dead bedbug in a book, a pest control company brought in and used a sniffer dog and found more dead bedbugs in the thriller-mystery section.
Fryer said library staff are still working and answering any phone calls that come while the library is closed. A sign on the door states that the library is closed because of a building maintenance issues.
Fryer said the city wants to be proactive about keeping residents informed of the situation and will be making further information known later today.
With files by Janaya Fuller-Evans, Burnaby NOW
www.twitter.com/AlfieLau
