Mold Decimates Hawaiian
School Library Collection
A rural Hawaiian school library could lose up to half of its 12,000-book collection due to an outbreak of mold that forced officials to close the facility last September as a health hazard. Hau’ula Elementary School Librarian Natalie Zane said in the May 1 Honolulu Advertiser that she has already discarded 3,000 titles and might have to throw out as many more before the library can reopen, hopefully in time for the new school year.
Zane got some help in late April from the Assistance League of Hawaii volunteer group, which donated 800 books to the dwindling collection. The library also received books from two girl scouts in Manoa and donations from Follett Book Company and Baker and Taylor.
The state added four dehumidifiers to the library this semester to control the spread of the brown and black specks on the books, as well as thick growths of mold that thrive in the doorways. Zane has been using a vacuum cleaner with a special filter to clean the books before she sends them to a Brigham Young University/Hawaii facility in nearby La’ie for freeze-drying.
State Librarian Virginia Lowell told the Advertiser that mold and insects are a problem for libraries throughout humid Hawaii. Because of the state’s budget woes, she said, most libraries can only afford to either replace materials or control humidity, but not both.
Posted May 6, 2002.
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