Drying frozen books

Micki Ryan wrote

>My plea is: what do
>I do now, since they are not drying?  No one is complaining, so I
>suppose they could stay in another year if that is the advice.  But,
>is this supposed to happen? How long does it take?

Several years ago, we had a project to dry some wet, frozen
volumes--large 19th century manuscript ledger volumes with laid
paper & leather bindings.  The freezer they were being stored in
fritz'ed out (no offence to anyone named Fritz) and we had to dry
the volumes in a hurry--they were were frozen wrapped in plastic,
which provided an ideal environment for mold growth.

We used blotter paper between leaves, and moved/replaced the
blotters several times a day.  Each day we leafed through the
volumes brushing away any new mold growth (wear a good filtering
mask) and applying a fungicide (o-phenyl phenol) lightly with a
cloth.  We found that the mold's progress was somewhat related to
the binding structures--the mold advanced most quickly between
signatures and around stitching, presumably because it had more
"food" from the adhesives, leather, and other material in the
binding, and crept up along the openings in the binding structure.
By targeting these areas, I think we saved a little effort, though
it took a prodigious effort to keep on top of the drying and mold
suppression until the volumes were stabilized.

The end condition of the volumes was dependent on their condition
before wetting, and their level of saturation.  Some volumes fared
very well, and some were pretty warped.  All were placed in custom
phase-boxes. Good luck,

Sally Power
Manuscripts Processing
Special Collections, LLMVC
LSU Libraries, LSU
Baton Rouge, LA  70803
504-388-6554

                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:36
                Distributed: Wednesday, October 15, 1997
                       Message Id: cdl-11-36-008
                                  ***