Don t spray inside the building without consulting a conservator first. The South Carolina Public Records Storage Regulations provide further guidelines. It took them about a week to get it fixed, and during that time our file room began to smell musty. We began to discover black mildew on some of the files. If these are active files, the best thing to do is to photocopy any damaged files as they are pulled.
Molds can be harmful to people as well as to documents.
They should be removed as soon as possible. If your files and records are historically valuable, and if the mold outbreak is widespread, you should contact a conservator. The safest approach is to literally vacuum the mold from the books and files using a HEPA filtered vacuum. Most regular vacuums simply suck the mold and dust in and blow the majority of spores directly out the exhaust. Moldy materials should be handled by people wearing latex gloves and proper respirator masks.