Questions about mouldy smell

Two recent purchases, one hardback, other paperback, smell faintly mildewy. They are rare titles, so I bought them anyway, but I'm afraid of shelving them with other books (right now they are both getting sunbaths behind a window).

Nothing seems to be actually growing in these books. I'm wondering whether the smell itself is contagious. Does it ever go away, and is there anything I can do to remove it? Thanks!

No guarentee to these but I have heard: stick some dryer sheets between the pages; place in clean kitty litter to absorb moisture; or, microwave the book. Not sure about the microwave cuz I think it would melt the glue.

I don't have a microwave, so that's ok. :)

The thing is, the books aren't damp at all. They just smell.

Don't use dryer sheets unless they have already been used.

Airing in sunlight should do it; if not, I'd try kitty litter or baking soda to absorb the odor.

Thanks. I'll give them a few more days in the sun, then try the baking soda.

I would suggest that you put the books in a closed container with some activated charcoal for a few days. If you can't buy activated charcoal then buy extractor fan filter sheets that use activated charcoal - these are for the extractors that are not externally ventilated. Activated charcoal is amazingly effective and guaranteed to do no harm.

Thanks. In fact, I have access to activated charcoal, I'll start with that!

You may need to leave the book open to expose as many pages as possible to the activated charcoal - otherwise you will just deodorize the covers.

The Stanford University Libraries Conservation Online (CoOL) referenced in the other thread has quite a bit of information on mold.

i think what you call "mouldy smell" is the delightful smell i receive in some old books. why get rid of it? would you get rid of your parents if they began to smell?

Is that an option?!?!?!? :p

J/K, however I might recommend they bathe if the smell was strong enough.

After reading through the endless threads about laundromats and such on another thread in this group, I left a post about microwaving to get rid of mold smell. It didn't work for my book, and it made my microwave spew mold odors the next time I used it for heating food, yikes!

The delightful smell in old books is different that the smell of mold.

I intend to try the activated charcoal method next.

Realizing the original post in this thread is a year old, I will remark that I have been told by booksellers that that distinctive odor - while seemingly invisible - is contagious, not a happy thought.

When you find the solution let me know. I've chucked some books out in the garage lest they spread their plague. They look sad.

It is indeed contagious; in the library where I worked, one volume's infection spread along until the whole shelf had it. Keep books that have that cold, sweetish smell separate from other books.

I have had good results by leaving them in the back seat of my car parked in the sun for a few weeks; it bakes it out. It doesn't (usually) get hot enough in there to melt the glue.

Let's see, this was last summer--so, yes, first I kept them in the sunshine behind the window for weeks, which didn't decrease the smell much, but made them nicely toasty to touch while reading :). Then I interleaved a number of used dryer sheets between the pages and wrapped them in plastic bags--separately--left them for... months... and today the dryer sheet smell overpowers the whiff of mould. But you can still detect it--or perhaps it's etched on my mind by now.

I still keep these books with the dryer sheets inside plastic bags, sequestered from others.

one volume's infection spread along until the whole shelf had it

But was it the mould that spread, or odour alone? I'd expect the former, if one volume spread it to the entire shelf. I think many libraries, like hospitals, might be hotbeds of microbial life--books are usually stored in dark, un- or underheated places, and not many ordinary public libraries have proper humidity control etc. Same goes for bookstores, especially secondhand and antiquary, whose stock is both older and may stay on the shelves much longer than the flavour-of-the-month chains fare.

There's no odor without the mold - you mostly can't see the mold, unless it's so bad you see the dark grey spots, but you can smell it.

>15 LolaWalser: re humidity control, and lack thereof in used bookstores...thankfully, I would say that most of the moldy books* I've bought were not bought in bookstores or library sales around here, but came into my life via the internet. I always mean to ask sellers if the book has any moldy odor...and then I usually forget to do so.

* it sounds like I'm buying moldy books right and left. Thankfully, that is not the case!

I've had half my library in storage for almost two years along with all my other worldly goods waiting for a house to be finished. I looked in on it last weekend and discovered to my horror that in this "climate controlled" storage 2-3" of mold was growing up everything. In the coming weeks, when I'm trying to get everything out, you will probably hear much wailing and gnashing of teeth along with pleas for advice. Oh, the horror, the horror...

A nightmare. I am so sorry for you. My one little book that I've been treating with the used dryer sheet method, still has a moldy smell, although it's not as bad as it was. And it's been sitting there, encased in dryer sheets, one in every page, for weeks.

So sorry to hear that, varielle! I feel your pain - I have had similar incidents in the past.

Storage is a scary thing. My sympathies.

This may be crazy, and might be impracticable (or at least impractical), but perhaps we should establish an FS book care network for temporary storage needs for fine editions. The FS group members located in your area will pick up a box or two of books and keep them in a nice, loving home for an agreed upon time period for moving, building, remodeling, temporary job assignments, etc.

Os.

varielle,
Your experiance is a horrible nightmare, next to my fear of silverfish. Please let us know how you will recover from this. I wonder if a query to a rare book collection library at a university or metro site might be of some assistance. The rare book collection in the Toronto Reference Library are helpful, at least in my experiance.

By the way I do second Olbaldistone's motion!

*Relief* My books are safe and have escaped into the house to roam about at will. I guess I packed better than I thought. No stinky smell or mold detected.

Hurray! So glad to hear that!

My wife recently attended a conference in Biloxi Mississippi and learned that the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library was hit by Hurricane Katrina and since then they have become experts in dealing with water damage. I do not know if it is possible to contact them with questions. Maybe some of our library / museum people know.

Scientists can tell the condition of your book by its smell. Who knew books were so gassy? http://news.discovery.com/history/old-books-paper-chemical-test.html

>27 varielle:
Yes, but first you need a "hand-held electronic nose."

Would you please hold my nose for a moment? :^)

Os.