Other facilities in the complex will not be affected; town hall is closed on weekends and the police department will stay open despite the cold.

According to library director Peggy Conaway, the boiler replacement project at the civic center starts on Jan. 3. The building should stay warm for a few days, however, Conaway said, as long as patrons dress in winter clothing.

"By Sunday the fifth, it'll be pretty uncomfortable in here," Conaway said. The project will be completed in time for the library to "be back to regular operations" and open at its normal hour of 10 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 6, Conaway said.

"The fact is, a lot of systems have reached the end of their life," Conaway said about the boiler replacement. The boiler, like many other structures in the civic center, is the original one from the 1960s.

The library also faced some closures in the aftermath of the Dec. 15 storm that hit the area.

John Curtis, Los Gatos director of parks and public works, said a drain on the plaza level overflowed. Water then got into the library's heating vents and dripped into the lower level of the library.

Library systems administrator Maureen Roll said it "rained" in the fiction collection, affecting the carpet and books. "We have about 600 to 700 books that did get wet and are being vacuum freeze-dried," Roll said. Those books should be dry and back in circulation this week.

About one-third of the carpet in the basement was "really soaked," with standing water in some sections, and part of the children's room carpet also got wet. Conaway said that while portions of the library are closed because of the damage, librarians will retrieve books for patrons.

Conaway said insurance should cover the cost of freeze-drying the books, but she needs to determine if it will also pay for the replacement of all the carpet.

According to Conaway, this kind of weather-related damage has never happened to the library before. Library staff is working with public works employees to prevent similar damage from occuring in the next storm, Conaway said.

In the meantime, Roll asks the community to bear with the library in its repairs and closures. "We need patience while we get everything back together," Roll said.