Mould is one of the unspoken eternal challenges that faces all heritage collections and, on occasion, our homes – whether from damp or food overstaying its shelf life in the refrigerator. They are an ubiquitous and diverse form of life; scientifically they are fungi, and culturally they have given us penicillin. In addition, for custodians, they symbolise evidence of a malfunctioning storage environment.
This guidance aims to explain mould in a wider context, the conditions that encourage its growth, the health and safety aspects when dealing with mould, how it can be prevented, and what you can do if you detect mould in your archive collections. The guidance offers support by providing further information about sources of advice and funding, case studies drawing on the experience of various archive services, as well as some facts about mould.
This guidance is for custodians of archive collections, whether professional archivists and conservators of a major collecting institution, a small specialist collection, or an individual responsible for the care of collections such as community, charity, and religious archives, as well as private collections.