The State Journal-Register reports that the Illinois State Library was evacuated on Friday morning after receiving a bomb threat. According to the paper, no explosive devices were found and employees were allowed to re-enter the building a couple of hours later.
The Secretary of State’s office had yet to issue a public statement as of 3:00 this morning, but Secretary Giannoulias said in August that bomb threats against libraries were part of a trend of violence and intimidation sparked by a newly passed Illinois law designed to prevent book banning at public libraries.
“Libraries and librarians protect our First Amendment right to free speech and our constitutional right to read,” Gov. JB Pritzker said in a statement Friday. “We must join together to stand up to fringe elements that resort to threats of violence and seek to destroy the fundamental freedoms that our nation was founded upon.”
The bomb threat against the State Library in Springfield follows a series of bomb threats against Chicago-area libraries earlier in the week. No bombs were found in any of the libraries targeted by the threats.
