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In 2023 archive staff at Hertford College Archives were packing their archives to transfer them into specialist storage ahead of their Library & Archive redevelopment project. Staff discovered an extensive mould outbreak in the collection of Magdalen Hall Buttery books. These are account books kept by the college butler, recording the meals that every member of the Hall took. They date from 1661 and are the only record of who was living and working in the Hall during this period. Staff faced a very tight deadline to have them assessed, treated and made safe to handle for staff and researchers.
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Challenges and opportunities
Please describe any challenges or opportunities you faced and how you responded to them
The presence of mould spores meant that access to the buttery books and their storeroom had to be immediately restricted. Hertford College archives are housed in an old building on a very packed site in central Oxford, so the biggest challenge was to find a safe physical space to carry out assessments.
Health and safety restrictions meant that it was extremely difficult to lay out the material in a safe space – preferably outdoors but covered over – so that it could be assessed but kept safe from students, visitors and bad weather. Finding a time to do the work over the summer, when there were no large-scale events taking place, was also a major challenge!
Hertford College don’t have an in-house conservator, so the team’s first step was to subscribe to the National Conservation Service (NCS). Although training had been organised previously, with hindsight the team assessed that they were not expert enough in spotting early signs of mould.
NCS provided invaluable advice and their expertise helped tackle what seemed an impossible task by triaging the collection into mild, moderate and severely affected volumes. The worst affected volumes were sent offsite for treatment, while the moderate to mild volumes were cleaned on site by the NCS conservators. This enabled the archive team to observe and learn from their work.
The team faced tight financial restrictions, so The National Archives’ Records at Risk grant was crucial in helping to moving forward quickly. The grant was also a positive in terms of advocacy within our organisation, helping to secure internal funding and a donation from our Alumni organisation.
Outcomes and lessons learnt
What were the outcomes for service users?
The top priority was to stabilise these significant volumes and make them safe for use. This has been achieved and while the most severely damaged volumes still need very careful handling, the rest of the collection is safe to use and accessible. During the onsite cleaning, the team were able to make brief notes and photographs of the most interesting volumes which will help to plan future cataloguing and digitisation activities more effectively.
Describe what you learned from the process: what went well? What didn’t go quite as well?
Once the team had communicated the urgency of the situation with everyone in the organisation, they were able to coordinate all the activities involved in dealing with this urgent and unexpected project.
Bringing in specialist external expertise was invaluable, both for helping the team to deal effectively with the immediate situation and for improving their skills and awareness for the future. They ensured that the work was carefully documented so that they can effectively monitor the most vulnerable volumes in the future.
The team did need to pay for some extra cleaning hours, as this element took longer than initially estimated.
If someone was thinking about taking on a similar project, what would be the one piece of advice you would give them?
Don’t panic – take a step back and assess the problem to break it down into manageable tasks. Bring in expert help if possible and always ask for advice from colleagues as there is plenty of help on offer if you look for it.