Tucson Region

Tucson Time Capsule : Library's battle with bats

Libraries are known as welcoming places, but the Copper Queen Library in Bisbee had to draw the line when a group of visitors decided to move in. The 1904 building that is home to the library also had become home to a colony of Mexican freetail bats. And, as the library learned, if you have a lot bats in the attic rafters, you have a really big pile of guano on the attic floor, and eventually down the wall. After several years, enough was enough. The guano and the bats had to go. On March 18, 1993, library Director Lisa Gilliland stood in front of the resulting ooze. The library planned on removing the roof to get at the deposits and then hoped to recoup some of the expense by selling the stuff. No bats were to be harmed in the process, but future library privileges would be denied.