There's a legend in Greek mythology that's particularly interesting. It's a set of legends, actually, about what happens to people who are particularly nasty in life when they die and how they're punished in hell.

From the "Encyclopedia Mythica":

Sisyphus is the son of Aeolus the king of Thessaly) and Enarete, and founder of Corinth. He instituted, among others, the Isthmian Games. According to tradition he was sly and evil and used to way-lay travelers and murder them. He betrayed the secrets of the gods and chained the god of death, Thanatos so the deceased could not reach the underworld. Hades himself intervened and Sisyphus was severely punished.

In the realm of the dead, he is forced to roll a block of stone against a steep hill, which tumbles back down when he reaches the top. Then the whole process starts again, lasting all eternity. His punishment was depicted on many Greek vases. He is represented as a naked man, or wearing a fur over his shoulders, pushing a boulder.

Watching the folks at the Minster library these days is a bit like watching Sisyphus. They labour putting out plate after plate of silica gel, fans, dehumidifiers. They finally got the Upper Hall down to a decent humidity level - under 60%. But the Anteroom has spiked now, and it's getting up towards 70% again. I imagine if they begin to focus on the Anteroom, and ignore the Upper Hall for a bit again, then the same will happen - the Anteroom will be under control, but the Upper Hall will spike again. Especially since it was ominously humid outdoors today.

I don't for an instant envy them having to deal with this Sisyphean task (is there such a word as Sisyphean? If not, there is now). A, the assistant librarian there, is looking a bit haggard, in fact, especially frustrated by her coworkers' inability to seem to recognize the problem and do anything about it - the librarian himself if somewhat hopeless, and the other two individuals that know what to do are only part time and not in to monitor the situation every day.

I'm going in again on Friday to play in the Conservation Studio, and will hopefully not spend the entire day baking silica again. Not that I minded - someone's got to do it, right?

It's such a shame that such a beautiful building is so completely inadequate for the function its meant to serve. Apparently they weren't thinking about book conservation 900 years ago or whenever the building was built. Go figure. Nevertheless, I hope that something can be managed whereby the historical setting for the books can be preserved as well as the books themselves.