A thunder & lightning storm is blowing through Centennial as we send this message. How fitting…

Recently CLiC received two bins containing a variety of heavily water-damaged books. It’s still a mystery how these arrived at our offices, and where these bins have been held. See below for a list of owning libraries; we WILL be reaching out directly to these libraries to share specific details involving their materials.

• Auraria (C105)
• Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility (C367)
• CSU Pueblo (C422)
• Denver Public Library (C132)
• Sterling Correctional Facility (C808)
• Western State College (c532)
• Woodruff Memorial Library (C410)

But the key reason we’re writing today is to share a best-practice approach to handling reporting material damage involving water and MOLD. Yes, this could even be black mold. Ewww. Nasty. Dangerous.

Preservation experts shudder when they see paper material with damage like this. At CLiC, we mask-up, glove-up and do a bit of forensics work. And then we take the material straight to the dumpster.

Here’s why: most often with damage like this there’s little anyone can do to salvage the item. Again, CLiC strongly recommends that libraries NEVER send rare, irreplaceable material through the courier system. With nearly 3 million items transported every year, the system is not flawless, and unlike UPS, Fedex or the USPS — our carrier cannot provide item-level tracking nor insurance protection.

If YOUR library were to ever receive items in this condition, we strongly recommend taking precautionary action. Gloves and masks at minimum. Disinfecting material for cleaning non-porous hard surfaces.

Our process:

1. Note details like the item title, author last name, and owning library 2. Take photos to sufficiently document the extent of damage.
2. Submit a report using our Contact Library Courier page (https://www.clicweb.org/library-courier/contact/). If it’s an entire bin, rather than submitting item-by-item the online form, consider simply sending us a single email to courierhelp@clicweb.org AND attach your photos and a spreadsheet/file with those items’ details.

CLiC’s commitment is to review your report thoroughly and respond in a timely fashion.

Now, for the main event… some graphic images… Please see enclosed (click to see closer). Viewer be warned.