Oh, fantastic! One way to solve the mouldy book problem - blitz it!
Don't try this at home - and certainly not at work!
As to cat littler - what type? Wood chip? (/Lignum/ vitae ...) or
chemically imbued clay? (silica gel?) I found this -
http://cat-urine-cleaner.com/litterbox/litter-ingredients.html
Choices, choices ...
Wendy Cawthorne wrote:
>
> I don’t know whether these will have any truth in them or whether they
> will just amuse / appal. These two ‘tips’ were forwarded to me by my
> boss from a US Earth Science Libraries mailing list. We’d not favour
> the first here for fear of tainting our books with ‘odeur de
> mulligatawny’ rather than mould!
>
> 1 I have heard of people using a microwave to kill mold. You have to
> be careful that the book does not have any gold leaf lettering or on
> the pages or that will cause arcing. I have used it twice and it
> seemed to work pretty well.. I think I had a 2" thick hardcover book
> and microwaved it on high for about 30 seconds at first and then 1
> minute. It worked pretty well. I gently wiped off the mold dust that I
> could see on the pages afterwards. Keep in mind that the book was not
> rare or valuable!! I did not notice any damage to the glue or binding.
>
> 2 I learned another neat trick from our Preservation Librarian. To get
> rid of the moldy/musty smell, you can use cat litter.
> Fix a pan of cat litter (fresh -- of course and keep away from your
> Library Cat -- should you have one). Cat litter with baking soda may
> work better. _ Put your book suspended_*_ above_*_ the cat litter on
> some type of wire cage, dish rack or other contrivance_ that will
> allow you to spread the pages. Leave for a while, and change the pages
> that are spread out every so often. Do NOT put the book in the cat litter
> The cat litter should soak up some/much/all of the smell.
> Results, of course, may vary but I have tried it with some garage sale
> items. It does work.
>
> __________________________________________________________________________________
>
> Wendy Cawthorne, Assistant Librarian,
>
> Geological Society Library,
>
> Burlington House, Piccadilly, LONDON W1J 0BG
>
> Tel: +44 (0)20 7432 0999; Direct: +44 (0)20 7432 0997 +Fax: +44 (0)20
> 7439 3470
>
> e-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
> Visit the ultimate geological site at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk
>
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Sincerely
Pamela Cranston
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