48592
Accession Number
24449
Author
Nesheim, Kenneth
Title Of Article Chaper
The Yale non-toxic method of eradicating bookeating insects by deep-freezing
Title Of Journal Book
Restaurator: international journal for the preservation of library and archival material
Volume
6
Issue
44259
Pages
147-164
Collation
5 figs., 6 refs.
ISBN
0034-5806
Language Of Text
English
Language Of Summary
English;French;German
Literature Type
Serial
Literature Level
Analytic
Abstract
The method chosen to eradicate the insects and prevent a recurrence of the infestation had to be non-toxic to humans, not harmful to the materials, not disruptive of service to the library's readers, and economically feasible. This was the first use of the deep-freezing technique by a library or archive to deal with this problem, and it continues to be used at Yale as a preventive measure in the processing of new acquisitions. The Beinecke Library has twenty-six miles of bookshelves (mostly underground) with filtered air-conditioning constantly controlling temperature and humidity at 21° ± 3°C (70° ± 5°F) and 50° ± 5% R.H. The infestation occurred in two adjacent underground bookstacks and involved two kinds of material: printed books (chiefly vellum-bound) in one area and leather-bound, Near Eastern manuscripts in the other. Proposed standard fumigation techniques employing lethal gases, crystalline fumigants, or chemical fluid were rejected in favor of deep-freezing, a technique developed at Yale over several years to collect entomological specimens. As the technique exterminates all insects, it is as effective as any chemical fumigation. Additionally, deep-freezing appealed because it could be executed within the confines of the library and would be least disruptive to normal library operations. The paper concludes with a detailed description of the Library's deep-freezing program. The equipment includes: a standard walk-in blast freezer which has electric fans behind its freezing coils; a 24 hour, 7 day graph temperature recorder; a monitor meter with thermocouple leads to check interior temperature of the books.
Keywords
Book disinfection;Library pest;Paper biodeterioration insect; Leather biodeterioration insect;Disinfection freeze AATA
pub_id
48592