Iowa library weighs sleeping ban

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IOWA CITY, Iowa, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- Snoozing may join loud talking on the list of things you can't do at the library in Iowa City, Iowa, where officials are considering a siesta ban.

The library's board of trustees took up the issue of sleeping patrons after staff members said it had become a recurring problem.

Iowa City Public Library Director Susan Craig said the library wants to be sensitive to homeless people while simultaneously ensuring the facility's limited amount of space is being used for its intended purpose, the Iowa City Press-Citizen reported Tuesday.

Craig said not everyone caught sleeping at the library is homeless and a sleeping ban would be uniformly enforced.

"If it's a 20-year-old sitting there with a textbook in front of them and they're asleep, you treat them the same way you would as someone who is dressed in a less put-together kind of way, is slumped down in their chair and has their coat over their head," Craig said. "So if you have a rule, it has to be enforced for everybody, and that's only fair."

The library board said it will consider adding a sleeping ban to its code of conduct at a meeting this month.