Dear Fiona,
The Italian "Istituto centrale per il restauro e la conservazione del
patrimonio archivistico e librario" ("Central Institute for the Restoration
and Preservation of the Archival and Library Heritage"), which is an agency of
the "Ministero per i beni e le attivitą culturali e per il turismo"
("Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Activities and Tourism"), last April 2020
issued some guidelines about the management of the environmental sanification
and disinfection in libraries and archives ("Linee guida emanate dall'Istituto
centrale per il restauro e la conservazione del patrimonio archivistico e
librario per la gestione delle operazioni di sanificazione e disinfezione
degli ambienti di Archivi e Biblioteche").
Here is the link at the resource that - unfortunately - is in Italian
language
http://www.anai.org/anai-cms/cms.view?munu_str=0&numDoc=1567
To sum up the indications, they are:
- isolation of library and archival materials for 10 days before giving anyone
access to them (unless the materials at issue have already been isolated in
the 2 weeks before the post-Covid-19 emergency opening: in this case there is
no need of a quarantine): the rationale of this advice is that ICPAL maintain
SarsCov2 may remain as a maximum for 9 days on any surface. This measure has
been being applied at the "Archivio Centrale dello Stato" (which is for Italy
what TNA is for UK) since last May 18th and I have heard there have been some
protests, because its application is very difficult.
- before allowing any user to access any material, the Archives or Library
must provide the user with PPEs (i.e. gloves and face masks) and with
sanitising gel, to be made available at the entry of the building.
- a staff member, properly equipped with PPEs, must take the documents /
materials (which have been quarantined for 10 days) and give them to the user
in a room possibly without furniture of any historical or cultural
significance (since the furniture is to be disinfected, and disinfecting may
damage old furniture - this advice cannot be uniformly applied throughout
Italy because some libraries and archives only possess historical furniture -
this is why you can see the word "possibly" -"possibilmente"- in the
guidelines)
- After being consulted, the materials must be quarantined for more 10 days,
if possible inside protective envelopes or casings.
As to the cleaning of surfaces, ICPAL advises to use 70% conc. ethyl alcohol
or off-the-shelf products with equivalent disinfecting properties, but to do
that just one time if the furniture has historical or cultural significance
and then try to cover that historical furniture with some materials that can
be disinfected without any risk of damaging it (e.g. glass slabs, plexiglass
layers, tarpaulins, etc.).
Moreover, ICPAL recommends that disinfection should never be attempted on
lacquer or resin, because these latter could be destroyed in the process
(therefore I infer that for ICPAL you may not use any surface or furniture
containing lacquer or resin as long as SarsCov2 is around).
I am sorry for the long email but have tried to sum up the content of the
guidelines. If you know Italian you can read directly the guidelines at the
link I have included above.
Again, I have hears there have been and are some arguments about such
guidelines because they are thought to be troublesome and conducive to poor
service levels.
I hope this information may be of some use.
Best regards
MASSIMILIANO GRANDI
Records Manager - Imperial War Museums, London
------ Original Message ------
Received: Tue, 26 May 2020 10:32:13 AM MDT
From: Fiona Kearney <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: File ciruclation & returns Covid-19 guidance
Hi all,
We are starting to open up or local authority in Ireland again to members
of the public who request older planning files from our off-site storage to
review them. These are provided to them on-site and then returned to our
off-site storage facility.
I'm currently looking at some guidance for the safe handling of these files
especially in relation to Covid-19.
Has any organisation created guidance on how to handle files during a
pandemic and the need to quarantine documents. I'm seeing recommendations
of 72 hours but this is more for library books. I've also seen 24 hours for
paper files. I don't think that there has been much research done on paper
files as of yet.
Kind Regards,
Fiona Kearney
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