MINNEAPOLIS -- Hennepin County libraries say plush toys and hand puppets will no longer be available for checkout or play, partly because of swine flu concerns.

Ali Turner, the library system's senior youth services librarian, says the public has been asking about the plush toys, so the library is respecting those concerns.

Puppets have been available at less than half of the 41 libraries in the suburbs and in Minneapolis. Some libraries have allowed them to be checked out, while others only permitted play on-site.

Turner says there's no way to know if anyone has gotten ill through the puppets, but the libraries are sensitive to the real threat and public sense that puppets might be germy.

Turner says that right now, library materials aimed at children need to be things that can be easily wiped down.



(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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