Schlow Library to Reopen on Wednesday After Clean Up of Water Damage from Burst Pipe

Schlow Centre Region Library will reopen on Wednesday after frigid temperatures caused a pipe to burst over Christmas weekend.

The library at 211 S. Allen St. in State College will be open for its holiday hours of 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday before closing on Jan. 1 and 2 in observance of New Year’s.

Schlow was closed on Monday for the Christmas holiday and scheduled to reopen on Tuesday, but instead staff spent the day cleaning up from the water damage sustained on Christmas Eve.

None of the library’s book collections were damaged, Schlow office manager DJ Lilly said.

The problem originated with a frozen sprinkler head in the second floor staff restroom. Water also traveled through doorways, causing wet carpeting near the audiobooks on the second floor, and down to the first floor, resulting in wet storage areas.

“The good news in all of this is that none of our collections were damaged, and it appears as though the vast majority of what did get wet can be cleaned,” Lilly said on Sunday.

“We’ll have our sprinkler system assessed by our vendor to make sure everything is OK, but we’re grateful that the heating and insulation that we’ve been adding to the building since the much more serious flooding situation we had in 2015 served its purpose and prevented anything more serious from happening [Saturday] night.”

That damage from a burst pipe in 2015 was far more extensive, totaling tens of thousands of dollars, destroying 1,500 books and forcing the library to close for two weeks.