Library staff cleaned every book on the shelves, about 23,000 total, with a HEPA-filtered vacuum and wiped every book with either alcohol or Lysol disinfectant. Staffers also cleaned all the floors, shelves, and walls. “We’ve spent the last 10 days essentially just wiping and moving and hauling,” Cogswell said.
“We had between 100 and 150 books that were sufficiently damaged to put into sealed containers to treat off-site,” Cogswell said. He noted that fewer than 15 books were damaged badly enough to remove them from the collection completely.
To protect the books and address public health concerns, the library had restricted access to the stacks until an assessment could be made.
An additional 11,000 books are in storage while the main journalism library undergoes a 20-month renovation, according to the library’s website.
Posted September 8, 2006.