When university librarian Artemis Kirk learned of the devastating fire at the Georgetown Neighborhood Library in late April, she immediately began organizing the university’s response. Drawing resources from multiple offices, Kirk has offered a range of services to the nearby public library.

"We're ready and willing to help them," she said. "It's clear they have a very big problem on their hands."

Fire companies from throughout the District of Columbia raced to the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and R Street in the early afternoon of April 30, where dozens of passersby watched as flames shot out of the windows on the second story and attic. The fire eventually destroyed nearly the entire roof and gutted much of the second floor.

The library housed a significant collection of archival information about the Georgetown area, including historic maps, files on individual neighborhood addresses, newspaper clippings and books written either about Georgetown life or by residents. It also housed many valuable works of art.

After firefighters got the blaze under control, they entered the building and walked out carrying large paintings and drawings in gold-gilded frames, and leather-bound books of historical records from the library's Peabody Collection. The materials were in various conditions.

While staff members in the Washington, D.C., public library system still do not know the extent of the losses and what may be salvaged, just having the many offers of help from across the city is gratifying, an official said.

"It's very touching that there are all these bodies building their collections independently, but when something happens to one, they all come together," said Mark Greek, who has been named salvage coordinator for the D.C.'s library recovery efforts.

Kirk said her inclination to help was automatic. Within minutes of learning of the fire, she started contacting others around the university so Georgetown could provide a coordinated response. What resulted is a multi-prong plan.

The university, for example, has invited the library's archivist to accept a "residency" in Lauinger Library's special collections division in order to view and duplicate materials that his collection may have lost in the fire.

Kirk also is working on a plan that may give local residents borrowing privileges at the university. That plan and its logistics still are under consideration, she said. Meanwhile, local residents do have access to enter the university libraries provided they have government-issued identification.

Georgetown also offered to host the public library's story hour and summer reading programs. However, public library officials decided to accept a similar offer from a local firehouse, Engine Company 20, that responded to the blaze.

Kirk said staff members from throughout the university have offered their time to help in whatever capacity is appropriate.

Nearly two weeks after the blaze, the public library system still is assessing its needs. Historical materials that firefighters removed from the damaged building were placed in a freezer truck that afternoon in order to prevent further water damage. With much of the library's valuable collection now in Texas for evaluation, officials will go about assessing what was damaged and to what extent.

Greek said the library will likely be able to replacing or restore many of the damaged items -- and even augment the collection from donations of new items. Residents and institutions already are coming forward to donate original documents or copies of historic records, some of which the library did not own before.

"We think the most loss we'll have is in the newspapers," Greek said.

Library officials have been meeting consistently since the blaze and discussions will turn to rebuilding.

"I would expect to have a presence back there soon, hopefully before the end of the year," Greek said. That may come in the form of a temporary library in a Georgetown storefront or a book mobile, he added.

Reopening the building may be two years off, Greek said, and is largely dependent on how much of the structure must be gutted.

Seeing the extensive damage to the building has prompted Georgetown's librarian to reevaluate emergency plans and procedures.

"Another person's tragedy becomes a mandate for the rest of us to take a look at our plans," Kirk said. "You can never, never be complacent."

In the case of the public library, dousing efforts became hampered by a lack of a fire suppression system. University libraries do not all have suppression systems over the stacks, Kirk said, but Georgetown's most valuable artifacts are well protected.

"If a fire broke out, you can't take one million volumes with you. But if something horrible happened, our rarest and most precious materials are within the fire suppression system," she said.

The most valuable piece at the university is widely accepted to be an original, handwritten manuscript of Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer." But the university libraries also have signed letters by every president, a first volume of a Shakespeare work, and other valuable pieces of Catholic, American and Washington, D.C. history.

Library staff members and the university's emergency response team all have responsibilities for protecting or removing valuable items -- provided human life isn't at stake -- in case of an emergency situation.

"Every time someone experience a terrible tragedy," such as the public library fire, Kirk said, "it gives us the opportunity to look at our disaster plan and make sure if something like that happened here, we'd be prepared for it."