The action of fungi on books, documents, maps, and works of art on paper can result in inestimable cultural losses. Plus, some of the fungi present in paper documents, surfaces and air from archives, libraries and museums are also a threat to human health. This work aims to review the literature on the most important and frequent microfungal populations found in paper-based collections all over the world, and correlate these data with human health risks. A total of 71 studies, dating between 1997 and 2018 were reviewed and organized. From 27 different countries, 207 fungal genera and 580 species were reported. Chaetomium sp. and Fusarium sp. were found to be special contaminants in the air of archives and have been associated with paper biodeterioration. The most common fungi reported (e.g. Penicillium, Aspergillus, and Alternaria species) have an impact on paper conservation but can also cause adverse human health effects. The most frequent fungal species retrieved from discoloured paper materials are discussed in greater detail. Considerations on methods of identification and quantification of fungal contamination are also presented. Finally, the authors acknowledge an urgent need for standardizing research in this area and further studies are proposed.

真菌在书籍，文档，地图和纸上艺术品上的作用可能导致不可估量的文化损失。此外，档案，图书馆和博物馆中的纸质文件，地面和空气中的某些真菌也对人类健康构成威胁。这项工作旨在审查有关在全世界纸质馆藏中发现的最重要和最常见的微真菌种群的文献，并将这些数据与人类健康风险相关联。回顾并组织了1997年至2018年之间的71项研究。据报道，来自27个不同国家的207个真菌属和580种。Chaetomium sp。和镰刀菌sp。被发现是档案馆空气中的特殊污染物，并与纸张的生物降解有关。报告的最常见的真菌（例如青霉菌，曲霉和链霉菌）对纸张保存有影响，但也可能对人类健康造成不利影响。从变色的纸质材料中检索到的最常见的真菌物种将得到更详细的讨论。还提出了关于真菌污染的鉴定和定量方法的考虑。最后，作者承认迫切需要标准化该领域的研究，并提出了进一步的研究。