The 30,000 books that represent a kilometre long shelf have been brought to a specialised workshop in Germany to be restored for a total cost of 200,000 euros.

The basement stock was supposed to be temporary but the sandstone proved to be much more porous than originally assumed so air conditioning was put in place to avoid moisture and fungus. The humidity level and temperature in the basement rose unexpectedly in 2009 and caused the development of fungus that damaged 30,000 books.

Two thirds of the damaged books are affected directly by the fungus and are not available for consultation at the moment. The last third was not registered in the database before the incident occured so they are not available either. All of them should be available again in Autumn 2010.