Mold

I am currently in charge of our Bindery Department. I am a graduate
of Simmons College and have a degree in Library Science with a
concentration in Archives.  I am basically learning conservation as
I go along on the job.

Recently we had an outbreak of mold in one of our main reading
rooms. It was controlled for a while and then it came back. Our
monitors were not working so we had no way of finding out the room
temperature or the relative humidity. We recently acquired a
hygrometer so we are able to monitor the temperatures in the stack
areas. It is fine for two floors excepting our main reading room
where the relative humidity is sometimes as high as 66. We have used
fans in attempt to have the air circulating.  Recently we did a
massive cleaning up of the shelves in the affected area in an
attempt to control the outbreak. My questions are as follows:

Now that we did the major clean up of the area, how often should we
clean (vacuum or dust) our shelves?  We are trying to obtain a
dehumidifier to extract some of the moisture from the air.  Which
would be the best one to use in a tropical climate bearing in mind
we turn off the air conditioners at night?.

Any thoughts or suggestions on the matters will be most welcome.


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 27:17
                 Distributed: Tuesday, October 15, 2013
                       Message Id: cdl-27-17-013
                                  ***