This discussion page was started by Katherine Kelly in June 2014 to collect ideas for improving mold / fungi page. It includes the suggestions offered by the BPG Publications Committee, PCC Task Force in 2007-2009. Please feel free to add your own suggestions for improvement.
Some overall goals:
- to restart the process of editing the PCC. The mold/fungi page has not been edited for content since the pdf was converted to wiki format in May 2009.
- to serve as a model for restarting the editing process on other PCC pages.
Some suggestions about the page as it is currently:
Style and Format:
- Standardize citation style to JAIC standards and link to online resources when possible.
- Consider shortening the bibliography drastically - a more focused and less comprehensive bibliography could be more useful to readers. About 5 key resources per section, perhaps?
- There is too much content on one page - this could solved by breaking up the page in to a header page and subpages. A possible model.
- A more detailed table of contents would help readers quickly grasp the scope of the entire chapter.
- Establish a way to acknowledge and differentiate wiki editors from the paper editors.
- Consider losing the "Chapter 12" designation, or only have it appear at the top of the page. Look at the Photographic Materials Conservation Catalog and the Book Conservation Catalog for models.
- Remove signatures from individual paragraphs (e.g. "(TP)". Consider discussing this with original authors, and/or disclosing that change in the header material (or citation list?). On a related note, several authors sometimes make essentially the same point in sequential signed paragraphs. These could be condensed.
- "Distinguishing Active from Dormant Mold" is not a treatment variation, but an essential part of understanding mold. It belongs much higher up in the article...
- Overall, the page could use more in the way of focus/direction. The section on "Purpose" could be improved to define the audience and purpose for this page.
Content Building:
- Add links to online resources, both within the conservation wiki (Health and Safety, Disaster Response, PMG, textile, and objects mold pages) and elsewhere (CDC, EPA).
- Add images, including photomicrographs of mold.
- Search out terms like "now available", "contemporary", "recently", "soon", and "since the turn of the century" and update them. And, if I may quote the 1994 page itself, "Any recommendations in the literature that are more than a few years old should be viewed with skepticism, since it is only in the last few years that the toxicity of a wide range of biocides has become a matter of concern."
- Discuss how and when mold fluorescences under UV light
- Prevention of mold should be stressed more and Health and Safety should be more thoroughly discussed
- Do some fact checking on the statement about diabetes and mold.
- Discuss sensitivity to mold with prolonged exposure. (Conservators who treat mold often)
- Fumigation section does not mention any options of freezing or anoxia.
- In the section on response - A timeline for mold during a disaster is needed (or linked to in disaster specific resources.
- Review sections on identifying mold species, when it is advisable, and the suggestions given for how to go about that (the several scattered sections on "how to cultivate" seem unnecessarily extensive - kkelly).
- Discuss gamma radiation (possibly under a "current research section").
- Discuss biological safety cabinets as an alternative to fume hoods.
- Review section on alterations to vacuum equipment and "mini-vacuums". Consider restating these as a less-preferred option to a HEPA filter, variable suction vacuum. Vacuum cleaner technology has improved significantly since 1994.
- Either update the discussion of PPE or [even better] link to more comprehensive resources.
- The section on Conservation Treatment: Photographic Materials is weak. It either needs better information or we should instead link to a better resource.
- The section on Conservation Treatment: Treatment of Structural Damage could be built up more
- Discussion of 70-30 ethanol to water mixture for cleaning equipment.
- More discussion of enzymes in stain reduction?
- Add a section on "current research"
- Update the bibliography (start by adding Fungal Facts!)
- Add a section of the bibliography that covers case studies.
- The discussion of why we don't use certain fumigants is good, but could be brought up to date with more recent citations (and support for statements about 3% loss of paper strength caused by EtO).
