WASHINGTON - Officials hope changes at D.C. public libraries will make them more welcoming.

Pamela Stovall, the Martin Luther King Jr. library's associate director, says visitor numbers have been down, forcing officials to look for ways to attract more people.

Among the changes, they will be removing the X-ray machine at the entrance of the Martin Luther King Jr. branch. Stovall says it can be "disconcerting and intimidating" to visitors.

There's also a ban on sleeping, lying or placing heads on tables and floors. In addition, people can only bring two bags inside, with the largest being carry-on size. Before, people could bring up to three oversized bags.

"Well, we don't allow sleeping," Stovall said. "That's the rule!"

From homeless advocates to the homeless themselves, few had a problem with the no-sleeping rule.

"Sleeping in the library -- oh yeah, definitely! That is against the law definitely," noted William Everett, a homeless man. "You can't have a homeless person sleeping in the library."

Advocates do say that the bag restriction will hit the homeless hardest, because they often have no other place to go during the day with their belongings.

"A lot of people, they don't have a place to leave the bags," said Herbert Hall, a homeless man. "They want to use the library, so what are they supposed to do?"

"It's just the city policing the homeless once again," added homeless advocate Earl Gordon.

Library leaders deny that, saying the news rules are simply an effort to make D.C. libraries more welcoming to everyone.

"I welcome them to come to learn. But just like everywhere else they'd want to go, there are certain rules and guidelines and the library has theirs," Stovall said.

The library is taking public comment -- then the new rules are set to go into effect on Feb. 1.

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Information from: The Washington Examiner

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