Why Italy put old books in freezers this spring

Here's a story we missed when it first came out — the method being used to salvage rare old books affected by spring floods in northern Italy.

The Guardian reported that volunteers in Emilia-Romagna were transporting the items to industrial-sized freezers provided by a food company.

Freezing (preferably as quickly as possible) gets excess water out of the pages, before they can be dried and restored.

You can see some pictures of these water- and mud-logged books in the Guardian.

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