Burst Pipe Soaks Rare Books at Lexington Public Library, KY

-- Library Journal, 2/23/2007

The Lexington Public Library, KY, is in cleanup mode after a burst pipe Tuesday soaked materials in part of the Central Library, including several in the Kentucky Room, home to local special collections. Old books, newspapers, and vinyl records were all being dried and, in some cases, freeze-dried as part of reclamation. "We've sent 26 items to the Munters Corp.'s document center in Chicago, and workers there have reported they think all of them are salvageable," spokesman Doug Tattershall told LJ. "The oldest item was a book from 1813. There was a personal diary from 1920 by a local writer and the bound volume of the 1877 edition of the Lexington Press newspaper. The Lexington Public Library's most valuable holding—the Kentucky Gazette, the state's first newspaper, which dates from 1787 to 1840—was undamaged."

Tattershall said that the library discarded about 400 biographies from the library's fourth floor nonfiction collection and a few brand new books in the Technical Services office. While the library is open to the public, the third floor, which includes the reference department, and most of the fourth floor, have been closed temporarily.