On April 27, 1916, Auburn’s Carnegie Library closed to all children under the age of 16 for one month so that all the books could be fumigated. This was done by the trustees of the library to help prevent the spread of scarlet fever.
In the late 19th century into the early 20th century, it was feared that common items passed from one person to another, such as a library book, could harbor disease. Though germ theory was widely accepted by medical professionals, the specific mechanisms for infection were not well understood. Before improved medicines, treatments and vaccines, children were on the front line of battles against viruses and bacteria. In 1880, for every 1,000 children born, 347 did not survive to their fifth birthday. By 1920, 185 children per 1,000 born did not make it to age 5. Today, that number has dropped to seven.
But in 1916, most of the Western world was in the midst of what some historians refer to as “The Great Book Scare” and libraries all over Europe and the United States were taking steps to reduce potential outbreaks of diseases such as tuberculosis, smallpox and scarlet fever. Fumigation, the technique deployed by the Auburn Library, was the most common practice, but some libraries resorted to incinerating books. The Great Book Scare waned as the 20th century progressed, but as late as the 1940s, some medical professionals still debated whether books could transmit harmful diseases.
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