It's taken more than four months and the work of countless volunteers, but the Middleburgh Library will soon be able its doors again.
A portion of the library has been with limited services for a few weeks but books are being put back on the shelves and the library should be fully open soon, said director Teresa Pavoldi.
Though no date has been set, the library should be fully operational and open by the end of the month.
"It's mostly all here," said Steven LaMont, vice president of the library board.
Volunteers have worked hard the last few weeks putting books back on the shelves in the children's room and the main section of the library.
The books still have to be arranged and they are still waiting for the delivery of filing cabinets, computers for the offices, and furniture.
Unlike the pressed-board furniture, computers in the offices and toys in the children's room, the great majority of the books in the library were saved. They have been stored in a patron's barn since the August 28 flood.
The library did lose about 3,300 books out of its collection of 22,000, Ms. Pavoldi said.
It is not known how many books borrowed by patrons were lost in the flood.
When the library does reopen, users will notice some changes.
A "reading tree" has been added to the children's room and toy boxes will replace the wooden benches that used to open in the children's room.
Most of the toys, puppets and stuffed animals in the children's room had to be thrown out.
"They're all children height," Mr. LaMont said.
The room will be restocked with toys and other items and Ms. Pavoldi said that Stewart's gave a donation for furniture in the room and National Grid also made a donation to replace items in the room.
In addition, there have been "loads and loads of personal donations," Mr. LaMont said.
Many people have made offers to donate books.
The library needs books in near new and good condition, officials said. If books cannot be used by the library, they are given to other libraries or put in the library book sale.
The children's room will now be designated for pre-schoolers while the area just outside of the room will be geared towards children six through 12.
Teenagers will also have their own section of the library as an area by the front of the library will have chairs and other furniture where teens can use their laptops.
The teens, and all library visitors, will still be able to use the computers in the bank by the circulation desk. Those computers were not damaged in the flood.
Some items in the historical room were not as lucky.
Mr. LaMont said some of the reprints of Palatine history were lost on the lower shelves, along with some family histories and some scrapbooks.
Some books and papers have been frozen and "we have been copying and copying," Mr. LaMont said.
Unfortunately, hundreds of photo negatives were lost, including many of those from well-known area photographer Russ Bergh. Some of the damaged photos can be saved, Mr. LaMont said.
An 1887 Mason's handbook was lost but a first edition of Charles Dickens' David Cooperfield is in a freezer in an attempt to save it.
Also lost was a box of old election items from the early part of the 1900s which included combs, rulers and other items promoting candidates.
Some old advertisements and calendars from Middleburgh stores from the early 1900s were also lost, Mr. LaMont said.
Most valuable research papers were safe since they were on higher shelves.
About 12 inches of water got into the library but it could have been worse, Mr. LaMont said.
The water was higher on the outside of the building but the doors held it, he said.
Once the flood waters receded after the August 28 flood, volunteers were busy in the library boxing up the books that were dry, tearing up carpeting and cutting out damaged plasterboard.
It took about two weeks to strip the damage items out of the library, Mr. LaMont said.
After the damaged items were removed, volunteers then began working on putting the library back together.
New flooring was put in, the shelves were cleaned and put back in place, sheetrock was put up, primed and painted and everything was cleaned.
"There are too many people to thank," Ms. Pavoldi said.
Mr. LaMont remembered Pat Federico working on her knees with a toothbrush.
"This is all done with volunteers," he said.
Until the library is fully operational, patrons can come in during shortened library hours and return books, select books from a few shelves, make copies and use their laptops.