This poor book was full of mold, dirt, and accretions. (I urge you to click on the first image so that you can see a larger version). The mold was inactive when it came down to the lab, but the dark, black, fuzzy stuff still made me shudder.
I vacuumed the entire book - page by page - in the fume hood, using a vacuum with a HEPA filter, and wearing personal protective clothing. It took about 3 hours to vacuum the entire book.
Even inactive mold can produce allergic symptoms in sensitive individuals, and we wouldn’t want our patrons to become sick while using our collections! Although the mold spores have been removed, some staining remains. Additional conservation is needed to make this book usable, since the sewing is broken, the pages are loose, and the binding is badly distorted. Just another item for my “to do” list!
-Bexx
Yuck! These are the kinds of copy-specific features we don’t want to preserve for posterity. The staining, at least, tells a story—but the presence of the mold itself (active or inactive) is obviously a serious health risk.
For more on moldy books and what to do with them, check out these other fantastic posts from our Library’s Wallace Conservation Lab Tumblr:
A big thank you to all the conservators out there for the work you do—behind the scenes—keeping patrons and staff safe and ensuring our library books are usable for generations to come!
Conservation Technician, Brooke Adams, describes the complex treatment of an International Good Roads Tour Scrapbook, part of SCRC’s Transportation History Collection. The scrapbook was compiled by William Sydnor Gilbreath Sr., a businessman and strong supporter of the Good Roads Movement (GRM). The scrapbook was created during Gilbreath’s participation in the 1920 International Good Roads Tour through Michigan and southeastern Ontario.
Conservation Technician, Brooke Adams, describes the complex treatment of an International Good Roads Tour Scrapbook, part of SCRC’s Transportation History Collection. The scrapbook was compiled by William Sydnor Gilbreath Sr., a businessman and strong supporter of the Good Roads Movement (GRM). The scrapbook was created during Gilbreath’s participation in the 1920 International Good Roads Tour through Michigan and southeastern Ontario.
Third in a series of guest posts from Shaoyi Qian, summer 2021 Baker Fellow at the U-M Library’s conservation lab, describing her work on several pop-up and moveable books. Read more!
