NCPTT

Recovery specialists need to have a clear sense of the pros and cons of existing treatment options before they can respond effectively. This information is critical to making event-specific decisions so that collection permanence is optimized and distortion minimized within fiscal and operational constraints.

Questions to be addressed in reaching those event-specific decisions include: What is the optimal approach to drying water-damaged books given the amount of material affected? What constraints are imposed by the availability and capacity of freezers, electricity, heating, ventilating and cooling (HVAC) systems, labor (trained and untrained), equipment (e.g., book presses, sorbants, fans) and vendors?

What regional industrial resources can be called into service (e.g., freeze driers, flash freezers, sub-zero warehouses)? What percentage of the damaged material is rare and which technical options are preferable for material with significant cultural or monetary value? How will a chosen treatment affect paper permanence or the physical cockling of damaged books? When is sterilization justified and what is a responsible treatment option? And if the collection is insured, what constitutes "restoration to usability?"

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