Frozen in their Tracks: Applied prophylaxis and the debugging of an incoming environmental collection
As a librarian and long-time environmental activist prepared to move from Maryland to Maine, she
decided to dispose of many of her own collections which were stored in both basement and garage.
Upon learning that The Bancroft Library is the repository for the Sierra Club and has particular
strength in environmental collections, she contacted Theresa Salazar, Bancroft's Curator for
Western
Americana, and offered her records of the last 20 years detailing local Sierra Club activities and
campaigns to protect coastal areas of the continental United States. Because of the donor's
impending move, a quick decision needed to be made. Theresa Salazar agreed to accept the collection
of approximately 18 cartons sight unseen.
An early shipment of books which the donor sent to another library was found to include some
unwanted guests, in the form of silverfish. When she relayed this information to Bancroft, it
became evident that this collection would have to be handled with the presumption that it had a
silverfish infestation.
The first rule of prophylaxis is to contain any suspect material within a cordon sanitaire. This isloation is necessary to protect the Library from possible contamination. The Library at U.C. Berkeley unfortunately does not have a secure staging area for incoming materials which are suspect in terms of pests and other contaminants. Steven Black, the Head of Bancroft's Acquisitions Division and Gillian Boal, Rare Book Conservator in the Preservation Department, had to review quickly their options both on campus and extramurally for sites where the material could be received, isolated, reviewed, and prepared for blast freezing if needed. The lack of such facilities in the Library has been a constant problem over the years and will be addressed: a quarantine room is being planned at the Northern Library Regional Facility in Richmond for staging and treatment of infested materials.
Steven Black arranged to have the boxes specially marked so upon delivery they were staged in an
area near the Library's mail room. Once there, Gillian Boal spot-checked the boxes to see if there
was any evidence of silverfish and to check the precondition of these materials; she also arranged
with Art Slater in Campus Pest Management to spray around the boxes to kill any silverfish that
might escape. Next, Susan
Francisco
of the Library's Facilities Office shrink-wrapped the boxes onto a pallet and transported the
collection to U.S. Cold Storage Company in Oakland for freezing. The boxes were sent to cold
storage on a Monday and picked up and delivered back to the Library on the following Friday. Any
silverfish would have perished after being frozen.
On their return from freezing the contents of the boxes, which had arrived from the donor packed in
a black plastic bag within each box, needed to be examined. Upon investigation it was found that
that there was some previous damage to the materials and mold was in evidence in at
least
one box. These bags were removed and the boxes repacked to ameliorate the effects of possible
condensation while drying. The donor had packed the collection into large banker's boxes and
numbered them 1-18. In re-packing, care was taken to review the contents for any damage from
freezing, and carefully retain the order of the files. It was also an opportunity to note evidence
of mold which could be dealt with by the Conservation Treatment Division to ensure the safety of
Bancroft processing staff. This task took six people working together for two hours and resulted in
two acid-free cartons being used to hold the contents of each banker's box, thus doubling the
number of containers used to house the collection from eighteen to thirty-six.
If there is any lesson to be drawn from this detailed logistical account of acquiring new
materials, it is to highlight the occasional unintended and unwanted ill-effects that can develop
when collections are stored in an uncontrolled environment. Some indeterminate percentage of
materials
offered
to the Library are at-risk. Staff must be vigilant as gatekeepers to ensure that these collections
are handled safely, and do not bring with them any living problems that might spread.
In this particular instance, the perspicacity of the donors—William and Vivian Newman—in observing and communicating what was either known or suspected of the collection they had stored proved invaluable. A number of staff at the University and in the Library assisted in responding to the need for containment and special handling upon receipt, including Wendell Hogg, Bonnie Bearden, Art Slater, Dasha Ortenberg, Monica Hanna, John Wenzler, and Heather Nicholls.
—Gillian Boal and Steven Black
Volume 20
Spring 2002
Table of Contents
From the Director: Bancroft's New Building?
Students Examine Original Documents
