When 750,000 volumes of rare books are imperiled by condensation, it’s time to think outside the building.

Since at least 2004, the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library – which houses books including all four of Shakespeare’s folios and a papyrus from the time of Christ – has had a condensation problem. The insulation inside the library has been slowly degrading and condensation has been building up, according to Loryl MacDonald, interim director of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library. This also resulted in fluctuations in the temperature, something that can be detrimental to books that need climate controlled environments.

“Over time with those types of conditions mould can grow and affect some of the rare books,” said MacDonald.

The library consulted numerous architecture firms and was told the same thing again and again: construction had to be done in the interior. This would require the books, some of which are in fragile condition, to be moved and the library to be temporarily closed.

Desperate for a different solution, John Toyonaga, manager of the Bindery for the library, saw an ad for a first year problem-solving engineering class and decided to throw the library’s problem into the mix.

“I figured we’ve got nothing to lose and it’s a win-win situation, let’s see what they can come up with,” he said.

The problem landed in the lap of Yewon Son and her five classmates. Son, a 21-year-old U of T student, was 18 at the time and had only recently finished high school.

The group came up with a handful of solutions. Son said they narrowed their list down to the one idea that “checked off the most boxes essentially.”

Their ideas would eventually become a plan to coat the outer walls of the library with foam to act as insulation. Concrete would then be placed on top of the foam.

Once Toyonaga saw the students’ proposal, he took it to his supervisor and it “propelled our fight to get this problem fixed to another level,” Toyonaga said. The University consulted outside firms and settled on an altered version of the students’ proposal.

“They settled on a solution that was inspired by the students,” MacDonald said. “The students proved that you didn’t have to work from the inside, that you could go outside the building to solve this problem.”

But it wasn’t until about a month ago that Son even realized their plan was being implemented. Her group received an email from the TA of their class explaining that the library had chosen to make use of their proposal.

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Son said it “was an amazing feeling” to know that an idea from first year was good, “even though we didn’t have any of the technical, industrial, architectural, or economic skills to even know if any of our ideas were able to be implemented.”

“But we worked hard on something and thought outside of the box,” Son said.

“It’s a wonderful example of a U of T solution to a U of T problem,” MacDonald said. “One would never imagine a bunch of first year students being able to solve a problem like this, one that had puzzled people for years.”

The work, which began in late October, is scheduled to be completed by March 31.