Books absorb water and expand.
On Tuesday, March 19, I volunteered at the water salvage workshop put together by LAPNet (Los Angeles Area Preservation Network) and hosted by the University of Southern California. Julie Page of the California Preservation Program (CPP) and the Western States and Territories Preservation Assistance Service (WESTPAS) led the workshop. Thirty-six professionals from libraries and archives from around southern California (including two UCLA Librarians – shouts out to Susan and Diane) assembled at the gorgeous Doheny Library for an afternoon, to absorb Julie’s extensive disaster preparedness knowledge. Following a brief presentation about essential disaster prep tools, the crowd, along with several of us LAPNet steering committee members, reassembled in the courtyard to get our hands on a wide assortment of materials, and perform rescue procedures.
Earlier that morning, Julie had put together trays of water that she liberally stocked with archival materials of all types. She had collected black & white photographs on both resin-coated and fiber stock; color photos; colored paper; standard office files stuffed with typical photocopies and laser prints; blueprint materials; large colorful maps (that I was sorely tempted to rescue); black & white negatives; color slide positives in both paper and glass carriers; brittle old scrapbook pages with newspaper clippings (note: these come loose in water); colored paper of various vintages; and glossy magazine paper.
Many types of material often found in archives were soaked in bins of water to provide experience with drying them.
Handi-Wipes and plastic straws are useful tools for dealing with water damaged materials.
Absorbent materials used in water salvage include Handi-Wipes, Reemay, non-fusible interfacing, and watercolor paper.
In addition to these wide trays, Julie had placed a variety of books upright in several inches of water in larger plastic containers. The books rapidly absorbed the water and expanded, filling up the initial inch or so of open space to either side. She’d also put together a metal shelf and loosely populated it with books which she doused with water from above. These too plumped with the moisture, making them difficult to unshelve by midday.
Waterlogged colored paper leaches dye onto its neighbors.
Following her lecture, workshop participants got to experience interleaving the books with paper towels, propping them with pages fanned open, and using plastic straws to lightly lift the boards to permit airflow. Another interesting technique involved using Velobind combs to gently keep pages open and stabilized in case of any breeze.
Sheets of mylar are used to safely lift documents out of the water.
We used sheets of mylar to carefully retrieve, using water tension, documents floating in the wide trays. Dispersing the wet pages across the provided tables on paper towels, we were able to successfully dry our sample materials. Some participant groups were positioned at tables that were unfortunately situated in the full afternoon sun, which caused rippling in the paper of their items as they dried. My table happened to enjoy a shady spot, and our materials seemed to dry more smoothly.
Books that are not too soaked through can be propped up on end with their pages fanned open to permit airflow.
In addition to shade, we learned that a salvage effort will require far more tables than you’d imagine. One estimate is that a standard archival box containing approximately one cubic foot of material will require up to 30 six foot long tables of drying space.
I highly recommend participating in a workshop like this if you can. Even better, Julie suggests helping out someone else’s library or archive recover from their water emergency. You gain direct, hands-on knowledge of how different materials react to submersion – and your colleagues will definitely appreciate the help.
–Dawn Aveline, Preservation Specialist.
