1. preservearchives: When Records Get Dirty Over the past four years, Preservation Programs in St. Louis has been dealing with a few extremely nasty problems—namely, mold infestation and bird guano. Some of the mold was related to the 1973 fire, at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC). Other areas had leaks that developed after the 6th floor was demolished (because it had burned), and the fire suppression and pipe systems had to be re-adjusted. But how did the bird guano get into the records? St. Louis is known for its extremely hot and humid summers, and in our old building many of the non-archival records storage areas weren’t climate controlled. The staff members frequently opened the windows (removing the screens, for some reason), and in flew the birds. You can guess the rest. We found nests. We found feathers. We even found eggs. We didn’t want to bring these contaminated records to our clean, new, archivally climate-controlled building. We received funding to have most of them—12,372 boxes’ worth—sent away to be gamma radiated, at a cost of nearly $1.5 million. But first we had to survey all of the boxes. We found 14,719 cubic feet of moldy records and 8,200 cubic feet of boxes with guano in them. The preservation technician in the above photo didn’t actually treat the records; the guano-infested boxes were hauled away for cleaning by movers in full hazmat suits. Techs weren’t even allowed to touch the guano boxes, so that we didn’t spread contaminated material during the survey. Thankfully, the project is nearly over. And while there is still more work to be done, we were able to make the records safe to handle for future use.

    preservearchives:

    When Records Get Dirty

    Over the past four years, Preservation Programs in St. Louis has been dealing with a few extremely nasty problems—namely, mold infestation and bird guano.

    Some of the mold was related to the 1973 fire, at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC). Other areas had leaks that developed after the 6th floor was demolished (because it had burned), and the fire suppression and pipe systems had to be re-adjusted.

    But how did the bird guano get into the records? St. Louis is known for its extremely hot and humid summers, and in our old building many of the non-archival records storage areas weren’t climate controlled. The staff members frequently opened the windows (removing the screens, for some reason), and in flew the birds. You can guess the rest. We found nests. We found feathers. We even found eggs.

    We didn’t want to bring these contaminated records to our clean, new, archivally climate-controlled building. We received funding to have most of them—12,372 boxes’ worth—sent away to be gamma radiated, at a cost of nearly $1.5 million.

    But first we had to survey all of the boxes. We found 14,719 cubic feet of moldy records and 8,200 cubic feet of boxes with guano in them. The preservation technician in the above photo didn’t actually treat the records; the guano-infested boxes were hauled away for cleaning by movers in full hazmat suits. Techs weren’t even allowed to touch the guano boxes, so that we didn’t spread contaminated material during the survey.

    Thankfully, the project is nearly over. And while there is still more work to be done, we were able to make the records safe to handle for future use.

    April 18, 2012
    1. parkerticias reblogged this from bookpatrol
    2. sofielh reblogged this from preservearchives and added:
      less inspiring sides...conservation, but nevertheless necessary.
    3. lostinhistory reblogged this from turnofthecenturystyle and added:
      Oh damn. And I thought silverfish in the newspapers was bad.
    4. hostilities reblogged this from turnofthecenturystyle and added:
      Oh my. How does this even happen? Yes, they explain how it happened, but how do you just leave 12,000 boxes in a room...
    5. linfieldarchives reblogged this from awesomearchives
    6. icecreampoprocks reblogged this from awesomearchives and added:
      This is like exactly what I do at my job every day.
    7. ladyxaila reblogged this from todaysdocument and added:
      Wow…seriously gonna vomit!
    8. victoriousscarf reblogged this from todaysdocument
    9. palomides reblogged this from todaysdocument and added:
      Oh, hey, look, it looks like last summer! (And anytime I had to go into the attic at the historical society.)
    10. burggirl reblogged this from awesomearchives
    11. ringozwick1 reblogged this from todaysdocument and added:
      who says history isn’t messy work?
    12. pallas-athena reblogged this from preservearchives
    13. This was featured in #History
    14. itsneveralways reblogged this from todaysdocument
    15. mapmakerscolors reblogged this from awesomearchives and added:
      Mmmm can’t wait for this to be my job.
    16. talenachimaru reblogged this from todaysdocument
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    18. dyrtybitch reblogged this from todaysdocument
    19. riversidearchives reblogged this from awesomearchives
    20. iycrmm reblogged this from todaysdocument
    21. awesomearchives reblogged this from todaysdocument
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