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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 ________________________________________________________________________ This email is confidential and is intended for the addressee(s) only. If you have received it in error, please do not reproduce or disseminate the contents of this message; please contact us by return email, or by telephone on +44 (0)20 7434 9944, and delete this message and any copies of it from your computer systems. The Society does not accept liability for individuals' opinions, advice or views expressed in this email. The Geological Society of London is a registered charity, number 210161, registered address Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BG. This e-mail has been scanned for all viruses by Star Internet. The service is powered by MessageLabs. For more information on a proactive anti-virus service working around the clock, around the globe, visit: http://www.star.net.uk ________________________________________________________________________