Police pledge ‘special attention’ after bomb threats force public libraries in city and suburbs to close

Harold Washington Library in the Loop, shown on Tuesday, is one of the Illinois libraries closed after receiving bomb threats. (Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times file)

All Chicago Public Library branches and many other libraries across Illinois were closed Thursday afternoon after receiving “digital” bomb threats, apparently part of a nationwide intimidation campaign over the choice of books offered on the facilities’ shelves.

A rash of threats emerged across Illinois after Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias testified Tuesday about the dangers of banning books before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C.