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Step 7: Clean Your Work Area

Once you have finished examining a book that you have determined has mold, reduce the likelihood of spreading mold to other books – or to yourself:

1. Wash your hands thoroughly
2. Clean your work surface either with a disinfectant cleaning solution or with rubbing alcohol on a rag
3. After cleaning the work surface, discard any rags you have used with the book; the spores may not have been killed, and discarding the cleanup rags reduces the amount of mold spores your collection is exposed to. See On Keeping Moldy Books, and discard rags in the same way.

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Books Gone Bad - Mold in Library Collections was a project sponsored by Maine College of Art, in partnership with the Joanne Waxman Library. Funding for this project came from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation. The Project Lead and Artist for this project was Diane J. Wren. All contents Copyright © 2011 by Diane J. Wren. All rights reserved. No part of this web site may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a data base or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of Diane J. Wren.