HANOVER – The Gardner Roberts Memorial Library opens its doors to book lovers at 9 a.m. on Wednesday.

The event follows years of fundraising activities and thousands of hours of work by volunteers from here and elsewhere.

“We worked very hard to get it where it is now,” said Donna Worcester, president of the library’s Board of Trustees.

While work remains – like moving hundreds of books from the old fire building to the library – and money needs to be raised to pay to connect electricity, the 19th century former post office will throw open its doors to anyone who wants to see the changes made to the building.

A rocking chair will be on the porch, on loan from Peggy Susbury – a volunteer and the person on duty at the library Wednesday morning – and the library’s original kerosene lamps will be on display.

“I’m hoping many people will come to look and see what’s going on,” said the retired SAD 43 elementary school teacher. “We’ve done a lot of sorting and classifying,” she said.

By summer’s end, she expects the 2,200 volumes now on the library’s bookshelves will be doubled.

Neighboring libraries, including those in Bethel and Rumford, have donated books, as have individuals. The library’s limited budget allows for a few purchases, but most books are donations.

The library, which for 123 years had been situated on a postage-stamp-like lot with no parking on Howard Pond Road, was moved next to the town office last year. Here, it will have electricity and patrons can use the rest room at the town office.

More than $40,000 was for the project through donations, bottle drives, pledges and other events. Raymond Taylor, a former paper mill manager, donated thousands of dollars toward the project in memory of his wife, Jane, who loved children and books. A stone outside the library honors the Taylors.

Susbury said along with newer books for adults there is a large section of children’s books, and a special section devoted to older books by New England authors from the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Kate Wiggins. The library will also offer magazines for lending.

The building has been restored inside and out, with shiny varnished floors and walls and new bookshelves.

Others expected to staff the library Wednesdays along with Susbury include trustees Paulette Booth and Vicky Fimiani, and SAD 44 teacher Amy Verrill. The library will be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays through summer and into the fall before temperatures drop too much. The library is unheated.

Susbury is also compiling a wish list that will be posted in the library. Among items on it are entry and exit doormats, an indoor-outdoor rug, a child’s table and another rocking chair.

She also hopes money will be raised to turn the former mail slot into a book drop-off.

The library building was constructed in 1884 by J. Gardner Roberts. It became a library in 1895. It has been closed for at least six years, said Clem Worcester, a library trustee.

Susbury said anyone can borrow books from the library for $1 a year, or $10 for a family lifetime membership.

She said her volunteer hours have been satisfying.

“I have a great love for books and I wanted a project,” she said.

Worcester, deeply involved in the library’s fate for nearly a dozen years, said he’s also pleased to see it open.

“Our lovely, little library has found its home and is open again,” he said.