ABSTRACT

This study was carried out to isolate and identify the organisms responsible for paper deterioration .. The media used are Nutrient agar, Sabouraud dextrose agar and basalt salt media. The total aerobic plate count ranged from 7.5 x 10° cfu/g to 1.22 x 10 cfu/g. The fungal count ranged from 9.9 x 10° cfu/g to 1.68 x i0 cfu/g and the cellulolytic count ranged from 4. 7 x 10° cfu/g to 9. 9 x 10 cfu/g. The newspaper sample had the most fungal count with 1.68 x 10 4 cfu/g. Magazine sample had the most the total aerobic plate count with 1.39 x 10° cfu/g and cellulolytic count of 9.9 x 10° cfu/g. The total aerobic plate count had a mean count of 11.2 ± 2.7x10° cfu/g, the fungal count with a mean count of 12.2± 4.6x10° cfu/g while the cellulolytic count had a mean count of 7.1+ 2.8 x10° cfu/g. The microorganisms isolated from the deteriorated papers were Bacillus species, Pseudomonas species, Pasture/la species, Cellulomonas species, Clostridium species, Aeromonas species, E. coli, Staphylococcus species and fungal species such as Aspergillus species, Trichoderma species, Penicillium species, Acrothecium species. Bacillus, Cellulomonas and Aspergillus species were the most abundant on the samples. Paper is to be well preserved in conditions that would not favour the deterioration by these organisms.