Do you love nothing more than a good book? Heading down to your local library, eyeing the fiction section and engrossing yourself in the magical worlds of Pratchett, Atwood, Rowling or Dickens?

Of course you do. But for readers at the Library of Birmingham, it’s not just the musty smell of books that’s tickling their nostrils.

Thanks to a Freedom of Information request, the library has revealed it banned three people from its premises – for being too smelly.

The £189million building – which features a vast collection from the British Film Institute (BFI) and the second largest Shakespeare repository in the world – has also banned others for extreme or abusive behaviour. But it’s interesting to note that it’s hygiene faux pas that have hit the headlines.

Keeping germs OUT of libraries

Conducting a survey on the issue, national tabloid the Mirror found that 76 per cent of people thought library users should “definitely” be banned if they were lacking in cleanliness. Like the smelliest trump card you’ll ever see, hygiene is paramount to readers everywhere.

Library bosses have upheld their decision to ban the culprits, stating that, despite several warnings, dangerous levels of bad hygiene continued to ruin the reading experience of others.

Just imagine someone strewn with bacteria pawing the reference section or thumbing your favourite detective novels. With every book read, or even flicked through, contagious germs will be multiplying faster than murders in a crime thriller.

And it’s not the only institution suffering a case of filth from its users – from offices to warehouses, restaurants to clothing stores, people with more bacteria than sense are infecting those around them.

Naturally, we can help with that. With our top-quality washrooms, advice on engaging people with good hygiene and great sanitation products, any company or institution will see its hygiene levels rise.

Effective cleanliness stems, in part, from effective facilities – people don’t need a textbook to understand that. So, get in touch and we’ll set you up with washroom services better than fiction.