The most generally accepted method of stabilizing water-damaged library and archival materials before they are dried is by freezing and storing at low temperatures. This buys time in which to plan and organize the steps needed to dry the material and to prepare a rehabilitation site and the building for return of the collections after drying. Freezing provides the means for storing water damaged material safely and for an indefinite period of time in similar physical condition in which they were found, preventing further deterioration by water and mold while awaiting treatment.

Freezing is not a drying method, nor can it be expected to kill mold spores, but it is highly effective in controlling mold growth by inducing a dormant state in the spores. If mold damaged material is frozen it is important that the drying method chosen must prevent mold spore activity during the drying process. For this reason it is important to segregate such material during removal and packing operations.

Stabilization by freezing also provides important advantages when it is not possible to immediately assess the value of the damaged materials or to determine which items can or cannot be replaced. In other words, stabilization gives time in which to estimate recovery costs, to prepare adequate environmental storage conditions, and to restore the building. In some cases, it may be necessary to restore or rebuild the original facilities - a process which can require a long period of time.

Had freezing technique been used after the catastrophic Florence flood in 1966, thousands of additional volumes could have been saved completely or would have suffered significantly less damage. The Florentine libraries which sustained the greatest losses contained mostly 19th and 20th-century materials. In these collections, losses were heaviest among books printed on coated stock, whose leaves stuck together during drying and could not be separated afterward. These losses could have been largely prevented if the materials had been frozen while wet, and if drying methods now known had been used to prevent adhesion of the leaves.

The effect upon freezing water soaked volumes which have lost their shape or have had their binding structures damaged by immersion, will be to slightly increase the thickness of volumes by the physical action of ice crystals, but this additional increase in thickness has been found to contribute no significant problems to already damaged books. Studies conducted by the Research and Testing Office of the Library of Congress have uncovered no evidence of any damage to cellulosic and proteinaceous materials caused solely by the action of freezing.

Freezing as a salvage method has other advantages. It can stabilize water-soluble materials such as inks, dyes, and water stains etc. which would otherwise spread by wicking action if they were dried from the wet state by conventional drying methods. Freezing provides the means by which water-soluble compounds will remain stable during a freeze-drying process which involves the removal of water by sublimation. This is the only known drying method capable of drying without further spreading of water soluble compounds, provided that the frozen state of the material is maintained before and throughout the drying process.