Vault

Our Juneau City Hall has a stinky old vault where old city documents
are kept. Old leather-bound journals of tax rolls, city meeting
notes in plastic binders, audiotapes, etc. The 10X 15 foot room is
all concrete with thick walls, a big heavy door--typical old bank
vault. It probably dates from the late 1950s or early 60s. No
carpet, just bare concrete walls and floor, some wooden shelves and
some metal filing cabinets. No obvious moisture. Employees and their
union complain of a strong musty "old book" smell, and attribute
respiratory and eye problems to the smell in the vault. The vault is
opened only briefly every day, since there are three people who work
near it and complain of the odor. Attempts to air it out or find a
source of obvious mold or moisture have failed, as has an attempt to
put an ozone generator in the vault for a couple of weekends. They
are now asking my museum for ideas. I'm checking to see if my
colleagues have suggestions or had similar experiences.

Ellen Carrlee
Curator of Collections and Exhibits
Juneau-Douglas City Museum
Private Objects Conservator


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 18:21
                 Distributed: Tuesday, November 9, 2004
                       Message Id: cdl-18-21-015
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