Odor removal

Two books from our circulating collections were discovered to have a
musty smell; there was no visible evidence of mold.  We set the books up
in the fume hood (fanned open, as though we were air-drying them), then
placed between them a small beaker into which we had placed some cotton
balls and poured a small amount of concentrated Lysol.  We left the
books this way for about a week.  At the end of the week the smell was
greatly diminished although still present.  We had previously tried
leaving the books in the fume hood without Lysol and had no success in
lessening the smell.

I should mention that in both cases the fume hood's fan was left on 24
hours a day.

These were regular stacks books, nothing special about them, and I would
hesitate to recommend this method for any materials of artifactual
value.

Cathy Larson
Preservation Libn.
University of Iowa Libraries

                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 5:53
                 Distributed: Saturday, April 25, 1992
                        Message Id: cdl-5-53-005
                                  ***