Abstract

The fungal spore incidence inside Gandhi Gyan library of Wardha city was recorded by exposing potato dextrose agar and Czapek Dox agar culture media petri plates for 10 min and then incubating at 28±1° for 4-5 d. The plates were regularly examined. Number of fungal colonies was recorded from the library for six months in the year 2011. Among the various species encountered Aspergillus niger, A. fumigatus were the dominant fungi in the library. Investigations by the petri plate exposure culture plate method helped us in determining the occurrence of fungal species in the air inside the selected library which also causes allergic diseases to human beings working therein. The fungi were also isolated from highly damaged, old and unreadable books. The cellulolytic activity and damage of library materials by some common airborne fungi were studied. Fungi play an important role in the decomposition of cellulose in nature. The present investigation deals with the isolation of fungal species from indoor environment of library and also cellulose degrading fungal species from library books for their cellulolytic capabilities, based on loss in weight of newspaper and book paper discs.