Library dries out soggy volumes. (Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, 5/24/2011)

Excerpt: Rain was the culprit. A fast and furious downpour on the evening of May 17 overwhelmed a drain in a recessed roof of the North Duke Street library and leaked into the second-floor Teen Reading Room, where it soaked the wall and carpet.

Even worse, the rain flooded the Gerald Lestz Reading Room below, where the books — all part of the library's Lancaster Collection — soaked up the water like so many sponges.

Fortunately, the library was still open and there were patrons in the room at the time.

"There were people sitting at the tables when the water started coming in," community relations coordinator Heather Sharpe said Tuesday. "Some of them didn't even move at first. They didn't know how to react."

But as ceiling tiles gave way in more than a half-dozen places and water rained down on the shelves and carts below, people sprang into action, Sharpe said.

"We had patrons running in and helping the employees take the books off the shelves," she said. "Water was just raining out of the ceiling."