A. Summer, 2002

· Small mold outbreak in Reference area. Treated by cleaning affected books, and inquiring about air-conditioning system status.

B. End of July, 2003

We noticed an outbreak in the 800’s-900’s in the reference area. Began contacting Physical Plant about trying to deal with air conditioning system. We had hoped to treat the books ourselves. However, since the humidity in the room was consistently 83%, it would have been useless to clean the books at that time.

C. August, 2003

The mold continued to grow and spread, and we continued to try to get someone from our Physical Plant to realize the severity of the situation.
Mold had spread throughout reference area, and employees and students began experiencing sneezing, breathing issues, etc. Nothing major, but we knew it was there.
We contacted Julie Page, who advised us on how to clean the books ourselves, and we proceeded with purchasing supplies to do so.
Classes began Mon., Aug. 25, and on Tues., Aug. 26, our Physical Plant manager came through with outside experts, who said we had to close down the whole library immediately (starting the next day). We had that day to move out of our offices, and into the “old” part of the library.
R & M Mold Remediation specialists were contracted by our Physical Plant to handle the whole process. They sealed off the building, packed and removed the books (6,000+) to their warehouse in Lakeside, and cleaned the affected areas thoroughly.
There was also an outbreak in our Media Collections Room in the LP collection. That area was sealed off as well, although it was not a public area, so it did not entail a major disruption to the campus. The LP’s were removed for cleaning.
Library reopened a week later but reference area was closed for two more weeks.

D. September, 2003

We were able to move back into our offices and the reference area in mid-September. However, the books were still off-site being cleaned.

E. September-November, 2003

Books were being cleaned off-site.

F. December, 2003

Books were returned and reshelved. A few (less than 100) of the books had to have the spines cut to get to the mold, and they are still not available. We have them back, but have to decide whether to rebind them or not.

G. January, 2004

Media collections room is still being worked on. The area will now be inaccessible for a period of time in preparation for return of LP’s.

II. Contributing Factors

A. Inadequate air conditioning system

· This has been a problem since RLC was built. The system has never pulled the humidity out of the air adequately. In fact, humidity in the old Ryan Library building (which has no air conditioning) is far lower than the Reference area in RLC.

B. Chiller

· The “chiller” was down for several days in mid-August, which happened to be a time of high temperature/humidity in San Diego.

C. Construction of the new Bresee Lab

· For quite a few days the glass, having been removed for access from both the outside and the inner wall that leads to the Reference area, allowed the outside air to infringe upon the environment in the Reference area, which resulted in higher temperature and relative humidity. Although the outside wall now is done, the inner wall is still not complete.

III. Cleaning Process

· According to R&M, the books were cleaned with an alcohol solution, vacuumed, and “air blasted.”

IV. Lessons Learned

· Communication is vital through whole process.

· If an outside contractor is used, find out exactly what the plan is, how it will be implemented, and when the process will end. (In our case, this was really more of a communication issue with our Physical Plant than with R&M.)

· Nothing happens quickly.