Fire and Ice!!??!!

I just found another very interesting article that discussed the problems that a county records office in Utah experienced when a fire ignited in their attic causing damage to their historic courthouse record books. The fire, that happened on May 2, 2006, quickly ignited and blazed through the crawl spaces of their air conditioning vents. The fire showed no mercy and the horrific outcome was witnessed 15 minutes later when the flame burned itself out. Although no one was hurt during the fire, everyone felt that they had lost something precious to them. "It was the 300 nineteenth and twentieth century full leather spring back stationers' bindings, many covered in protective white canvas jackets, were untouched by the fire but impregnated with a layer of soot and reeked of smoke" (Silverman, 2006, p.20).

So now it was time to find a way to save their precious historic treasures. Learning from other commercial disasters firms that have dealt with fires ruining their collections, Servier County Records office knew that they had to remove the soot by adhering to the current standards of sooth removal. So they began by wiping down the books with a natural sponge. Even though the sponge removed most of the soot, there was still some soot that was trapped in the books fibers. So they tried another technique which vacuuming. With the HEPA-vacuuming they basically vacuumed all the books that still had residue left, but soon realized that this was not the most effective way to help rid the books of the soot. This is because a week later effects from the soon began to resurface again.

Then they tried dry ice blasting. "Dry ice blasting proved the most effective of the three methods and caused no detectable abrasion" (Silverman, 2006, p.24). The technique was faster than wiping down books. It only took 1 hour to blast each book with ice compared to the sponge technique that would last much longer.

Now everyone knows that things have limitations. But as of now the County Records Office feels that the technique is the best because it helped o preserve the books for more years to come.

SOUND OFF!!!!!!!!!

Do you know of any other standards that are used in preserving books and other materials?

Reference

Silverman, R. (2006). Fire and ice: a soot removal technique using dry ice blasting. International Preservation News, 39,20-24.