Help! My iPod is corrupted. It was disconnected from computer, not ejected from iTunes. Now iTunes does not see it. Don't know what order to do things in.

IPod corrupted. It was disconnected from computer, not ejected from iTunes. ITunes was corrupted and has been reloaded. What next. Have many books on my iPod that I don't want to lose.

Now I'm back to the original problem that iTunes will not open which brought about all the other problems. Don't know how to proceed.