Moldy Materials

Needs revision to match current procedures (May 1, 2024).

Storage Procedure

Any handling of moldy materials should be done outside or in a vent hood. Protective gloves and mask should be worn. When mold is discovered and is awaiting rehousing, place it inside a trash bag and tie it closed.

Most items with active mold should be frozen to inactive the mold prior to moving to permanent storage.

For more permanent storage, put moldy materials into Ziploc-type bags that can be sealed. Put a silica gel desiccant pack into the bag, and squeeze out excess air. Do not bag entire cardboard boxes containing materials- cardboard absorbs moisture and you want the desiccant to work to dry the materials, not the cardboard. Moldy materials should be placed in the Quarantine Room. Boxes should be well labelled, and the label should state that the box is restricted due to mold.

Disposition

When processing or accessioning and moldy materials are found, the Accessioning Archivist or Processing Archivist will write a email report for the steward, stating the extent, contents, provenance, and recommended disposition of the materials. Include photos that show the amount of damage done by the mold and whether the mold is still active. The steward will decide whether the material will be retained or separated from the collection.

If the material is remaining in the collection, how and when they will be cleaned/preserved/duplicated will be determined by the Head of Technical Services. If they will be separated, discard or return to the donor following the Separations procedure.

Description of Moldy Materials

Any materials that will stay in the collection, but are awaiting mold remediation, should be noted as moldy in the finding aid. They require a Conditions Governing Access Note (see Moldy Materials on that page for guidance) and an Assessment Record (see Assessment records for guidance).

Further information from Peter Brothers of SPECS BROS., LLC, on moldy AV tapes:

“Depending on how much material you have, it is possible to seal tapes in large freezer bags with desiccant (note: never, ever, ever seal tapes in a plastic bag without a desiccant!). The desiccant absorbs the moisture from the air in the bag, from the tape itself and from the fungus. This doesn’t remove the fungus but, by creating a micro-environment that is dry, the fungus is driven into dormancy and is no longer “eating” your tape. When you do get around to decontaminating the tapes, dry/dormant fungus is much easier to remove than active fungus. This approach also has the advantage of, over an extended time, countering possible hydrolysis (sticky shed) in your tapes. Sealing tapes in a very dry micro-environment actually works as well as “baking” to counter “sticky shed”. It is seldom used for “sticky shed” simply because the procedure takes months rather than days to be effective.

The procedure can be used for any size collection. Larger collections just need more bags and more desiccants. Freezer bags aren’t that expensive and you can get large quantities of desiccant from ULINE company. For tapes, I would suggest the 4 unit desi-view packets of desiccant. They have Tyvek on one side so the moisture can be absorbed and a clear panel on the other so you can see the color-coded desiccant. The desiccant starts out blue, turns pink after absorbing a certain amount of moisture and turns clear when the desiccant can’t absorb any more. Note: just because the desiccant has turned clear, doesn’t mean it has to be replaced. It may have already absorbed enough moisture to create the desired, dry micro-climate. As long as you don’t open the bag(s), whatever RH you have achieved in the bag(s) should remain fairly stable for at least a year. As an extra precaution, if you plan on leaving the tapes in the bags for a long time, you can get color coded paper strips that monitor (somewhat) the RH in the bags they are in.

As I said, this doesn’t address removing the mold from the tapes but, once the moldy tapes are in bags, the bags can be handled and moved without exposing people and new environments to the moldy tapes.”