Before going any further, I labeled the lid of the container.Ĥ. Next, I scrubbed down one of the packing crates we typically use for disaster salvage with soap and water, and then let it dry.ģ. I wiped down the inside surfaces of the container with a non-toxic, biodegradable spray cleaner and let it air out.Ģ. First, I located a disused trash-can style humidity chamber in our storage closet. The smoky volumes are so large that only 3 fit in the chamber at a time, but with such a quick turn-around for effective odor removal, we will be able to cycle through the entire batch by early next week.ġ. We put the smoky books in a chamber with the Gonzo Odor Eliminator on a Friday afternoon, and by the time I checked them the following Monday morning, the smoke smell was already gone - even when I fanned through the textblock pages. This claim raised our expectations considerably! mesh bag allegedly eliminates odors in a space up to 600 square feet within 8 hours. The product is comprised of “non-toxic, environmentally safe volcanic minerals,” which have a negative charge that attracts positively-charged odors. Gonzo Odor Eliminator for Homes was recommended to us by the University of Iowa Preservation Department. We decided instead to test a product specifically marketed as an odor remover. In the past, I’ve used clay litter, which has worked to varying degrees, and also takes quite some time (up to a month). So, we settled on the sealed-container method of odor removal.
#Smell of old library books full#
The freezer method lacks a convincing grounding in chemistry, and our freezers are currently full of books being freeze-dried. We lack a safe outdoor space in which we could fan out the books in fresh air, and even if we had such a space, the weather here in Iowa has been experiencing such dramatic, unpredictable swings that we nixed the idea. The fume hood gets regular use, so leaving the books there for several weeks would not be a desirable option. Since the book cart of smoky books was filling our work area with the unpleasant, stale odor of lingering cigarette smoke, we moved them under the fume hood while we decided on a more aggressive course of action. Sealing the book in an airtight container along with an odor-absorbing compound (such as unscented clay kitty litter, charcoal briquettes, or a proprietary odor remover) for up to a month.Interleaving the book with paper towels and then putting it in the freezer.Leaving the book outside in fresh air (climate dependent) to air out.Leaving the book, fanned open, under a fume hood for a few weeks to air out.Some of the suggestions I’ve heard for removing noxious odors from books include: Reluctant to return the items to the collection in their current state, Circulation brought them to the Conservation Lab to find out what could be done. The odor was chokingly strong even from several feet away. Recently, a 12-volume set of Civil War histories was returned to the Library after being kept by a patron for several years.
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