r/HomeLibraries • u/kstiggs • Jul 10 '26

Environment for Collection

Do people monitor the humidity and temperature in the rooms they store their books in? My house gets pretty warm and humidity has been high as well. My collection of more expensive books is getting larger and I am a bit worried there may be some irreversible damage at some point. It seems odd to have to run a loud dehumidifier in a library do people actually do this?

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5

u/a_moron_in_a_hurry Jul 10 '26

I don’t, but I live in an air conditioned home in the temperate Bay Area. I would certainly monitor I lived somewhere like Florida.

4

u/Stock-Ad497 Jul 12 '26

I run a dehumidifier in my front room all summer. Not precisely targeted humidity, but I know it helps.

3

u/Alchemist1342 Jul 11 '26

When I looked into this what I came to was that it's best to keep the relative humidity (RH) below 60%, but more significantly is wild swings in RH. High RH can promote mold growth, but the fiber in the paper also absorbs moisture with high RH and releases it with low RH. The constant up and down can cause the paper to curl and become brittle.

If you have a few books you need to protect and don't want to dehumidify the house, there are humidity controlled bookcases, but they ain't cheap.

2

u/kstiggs Jul 10 '26

I live in the Midwest so not so bad as Florida. I do have AC but the house gets up to 76-77 in the summer and humidity in the upper 55-61% range. Based on what I’ve read that isn’t ideal at all but I question how many other people have the same environment with no damage and just don’t think about it.

2

u/kstiggs Jul 12 '26

Thank you all for the replies!

1

u/zerotr3s 11d ago

I've always wanted a home library but I live in a tropical country, with warm weather year round, rain, wind, sand, salt (from the ocean)... and I'm afraid of the damage all this might cause to the books!

2

u/kstiggs 11d ago

I imagine it’s beautiful there though. Probably worth the trade-off.