Reclaiming the JAC Library--Preserving and Conserving Library Materials
This is the story of how training, patience, experimentation, and the goodwill of volunteers saved over $500,000 worth of books and bound journals at the Joint Astronomy Centre Library in Hilo, Hawaii.
Background
In May of 1999, I received my Master's in Library and Information Sciences from the University of Arizona, and immediately after graduation moved to Hilo, Hawaii to take on the mantle of librarian for the Gemini Observatory. Shortly before my arrival, the Joint Astronomy Centre (JAC), which is located next door to the Gemini base facility in Hilo, had returned their ten percent part-time librarian to full-time astronomy research. Since Gemini and the JAC had a previously established shared-resource agreement, they asked if I would also manage their library as well. Evidently, the JAC hadn't had an actual librarian responsible for their library for several years; instead, they used individuals talented in multi-tasking from the astronomy and software staff. These people did a phenomenal job faced with both the lack of professional library training and the minimal time they were allocated to spend on the library (I shudder to think of what the room would have been like without their efforts!).
It was clear on my initial evaluation of the room that some serious work needed to be done. The JAC library, like the institution it serves, is twenty years old and has over 6,000 volumes (primarily monographs and bound serials). The 680 square foot room had one elderly dehumidifier that was often turned off by the infrequent patrons because of the "loud noise" and no air purifiers. Serials had been added to the library shelves as they arrived by the administrative assistants, but no monographs had been put in the room for almost a year, and the catalog had not been updated in even longer.
The Problem
The very first, impossible-to-miss indication that there was a serious problem was the pervasive odor throughout the room. Upon closer inspection, mold was visible on a majority of the books and bound journals (see Photo Set 1). The second problem was the sheer disarray of the room. Books were haphazardly shelved, and there was a lot of non-library material being "stored" in the room (see Photo Set 2). Staff members had been avoiding the library for months; in the disarray they couldn't find anything, and the atmosphere made some people physically ill.
A plan was needed; but to create a plan, research into what other libraries had done when faced with a similar problem had to be conducted. To my dismay, most of the information I found recommended that items that had become infested with mold (or mildew) simply be thrown away and replaced. That was not an option here; typically, small observatory libraries like the JAC don't have $500,000 (a conservative estimate of the total replacement materials cost) to spend on replacing all their books. Ideas had been bandied about when I was in school, among them the use of bleach and even microwaves, but I couldn't find a single article or paper on the topic. I searched in back issues of both American Libraries and Information Outlook, and online for anything about mold in libraries or cleaning mold from books. So I did some tests, and formulated what I hoped would be a comprehensive plan of attack.
The Plan
I took a duplicate volume of a bound journal and experimented with different strengths of diluted bleach on it until I found one that seemed to clean away the mold but did not fade, mar or otherwise damage the binding and cover that I could see (two cups of bleach in 1.5 gallons of water, a ratio of 1:12). Eight two-gallon plastic buckets, four gallons of Clorox bleach, five cans of Lysol, and several boxes of plastic gloves and protective masks were bought, and volunteers were solicited from the Centre staff.
Every book, every shelf, every surface would be cleaned--this would require a tremendous amount of physical effort (as most of us know, moving books can be quite a workout!), unpleasant odors, and discomfort. I was astonished and very pleased at the high number of volunteers. Even though they knew the amount of work involved, we had six to ten people working for the first three days, and had to turn away help on the fourth.
The Procedures
On Monday, December 27, 1999, we began our assault on the shelves. Each team member wore plastic gloves and protective face masks for the first two days, to help prevent the dust and other contaminants we were stirring up from lodging in our lungs. Buckets were filled with the diluted bleach solution and placed around the room, as were trash bags. (See Photo Set 3.) The first step was removing the books from the shelves onto a working area. Then the shelves were removed and wiped down with a wet cloth. The bookcase walls were wiped down as well, and then the shelves were returned to dry. For the books themselves, using a lightly dampened cloth, volunteers first wiped the outside covers of the book, the spine (paying attention to the joint), and the fore-edges. The inside boards and paste-downs (front and back) were gently wiped, and the book checked for further invasive damage, insects, and any other problems. The books were set upright with the covers opened in a V, allowing air circulation to dry them. Once the books were dry, they were re-shelved, and that shelf was flagged as finished. This process is outlined in Photo Set 4.
Unfortunately, fifty-four volumes were so badly damaged that they were deemed a lost cause. These volumes were stacked in a separate area of the room, and once all the shelves and books had been gone through these books were wrapped in plastic and boxed for disposal. Replacements are currently being sought from other observatory libraries, as reprints or replacements for these volumes are no longer available from the publisher.
This process of cleaning books and shelves took three days total. On the third day, while some people finished the books, others cleaned the windowsills, desks, tables, and ceiling vents. On the fourth day, the last of the dry books were re-shelved, the upholstered chairs were cleaned and vacuumed, the carpets were cleaned, and two new air purifiers and a new dehumidifier were placed in the room and turned on. (The existing dehumidifier was labeled with a "Please do not turn this off" sign as well.) This was before the three-day New Year's Weekend, so the carpet and upholstery had three full days to dry before anyone would be using the library.
Results and Recommendations
The results were astonishing! See Photo Set 5 for some "after" pictures; contrast them with the "before" pictures in Photo Set 2. Upon the return to normal operations on Monday, January 3 2000, I mounted a poster in the library thanking all the volunteers. I also sent an email to the entire JAC staff informing them of our efforts and inviting them to visit the newly cleaned and arranged library. In the three months since that time, I have kept a close eye on the library and have found no instances of a return of mold or mildew. The two dehumidifiers and two air purifiers run constantly, and the room temperature has been lowered (the library is now kept at 75ºF and 70% humidity). The room is noticeably drier, the offensive smell is gone, and I am happy to say that people are actually using the library now, not just for a quick grab-a-book-and-go but as a work and research facility.
Since beginning this task, I have learned a great deal about conserving library resources and where to find excellent information to do so. My mistake was in searching general library resources and information, not specifically for preservation and conservation issues. Since this effort, I have found many resources specifically for dealing with mold and mildew, and I highly recommend Stanford's "Conservation Online" section on mold (palimpsest.stanford.edu) for a good overview of mold recovery in a library. I recommend that every librarian, no matter how large or small your library, be aware of the insidiousness of these organisms, and have a Disaster Recovery Plan of one kind or another (even if it's just a set of bookmarks). I also believe we can all benefit from the use of volunteers in our libraries. The JAC volunteers have a more direct involvement with their library through their efforts, and using volunteers from your patron group instills a sense of ownership in them of the library.
Happily, I have since found that my plan of attack was a correct procedure to follow, and I have not condemned the books to a long and lingering death. The task has been extremely satisfying on several levels to return this library to usefulness, especially as a beginning to my career as a librarian.
Acknowledgements
My deepest thanks to Andy Adamson, Fred Baas, Doug Caldwell, Jean Chiar, Donna DeLorm, Vernon DeMattos, Marge Dougherty, Per Friberg, Olga Kuhn, Wendy Light, Dave Logan, Anna Lucas, Kevin O'Connell, Neil Oliveira, Ian & Chris Robson, Dean Schutt, Ed Sison, Helen Smith, Jay Tsutsumi and Watson Varricattu. Without these volunteers this job would have been much, much harder and taken a much longer time.
The Gemini 8-m Telescopes Project and Observatory is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, for the National Science Foundation and the Gemini Board, under an international partnership agreement.
The Joint Astronomy Centre manages the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope and the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope and is an establishment of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, operated in partnership with Canada and the Netherlands.
by Ruth A. Kneale.
Kneale is Gemini/JAC Librarian. She may be reached at rkneale@gemini.edu.
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