Survey on moldy materials

The Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin, is reviewing its
institutional policy for mold and bacteria infested (mainly library
and archival) collection materials with regard to acquisition,
treatment, building environment and storage, and access. I will
summarize responses (without naming institutions or respondents) and
post them on the Conservation DistList and PADG.

Acquisition:

    *   Will you acquire or accept collection materials that you
        know have obvious mold and bacterial infestations?

Treatment:

    *   Do you use any methods, such as a fungicide or irradiation,
        to kill mold or bacteria on cultural artifacts, or in your
        building?

    *   Do you use any methods to remove mold odors from collection
        materials?

    *   Do you identify the mold genus or species before treating
        infested collection materials?

    *   Do you clean materials by aspiration or other means?

    *   Do you have dedicated workspace, equipment, and protective
        gear for staff who treat mold-infested materials? Describe.

    *   Do you regularly monitor air quality in the workspace with
        the equipment running to ensure that the mold is contained?

    *   Do you verify (by analytical testing) that the surfaces of
        materials that have been cleaned are free of fungal
        structures and metabolic parts, such as conidia and beta
        glucans?

    *   After cleaning, are the moldy items provided with special
        housings? Are surrogates made? Describe housings and comment
        on the condition of material for which housings are made.

    *   Do you treat all moldy items as they are identified or do
        you clean them only when they are requested?

Access: Staff and Patron Use:

    *   Do you have dedicated workspace, equipment, and protective
        gear for staff who process and examine collection materials?
        Describe.

    *   Do you identify mold infested collection materials with a
        label?

    *   Do you restrict patron use of mold and bacteria infested
        collection materials?

    *   Do you have an institutional release waiver that patrons
        sign before using materials that are infested?

    *   Do you have dedicated space, equipment, and protective gear
        for patrons who use collection materials that are mold
        infested? Describe.

Environment and Storage:

    *   How and where do you store infested materials?

    *   Do you have an ongoing program to monitor mold levels in
        your collection storage areas?

Study and Research:

    *   Are you involved in any research about the conservation
        treatment of mold or bacteria infested collection materials?

Olivia Primanis
Conservation Department
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
University of Texas at Austin
PO Box 7219
Austin, Texas 78713-7219
512-471-9117


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 17:59
                  Distributed: Tuesday, March 16, 2004
                       Message Id: cdl-17-59-028
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