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.