Hard drive failed - have music files but not library.itl file

So here's the situation. The hard drive on my husband's laptop recently failed. It is now fixed, but his data is lost. Luckily, we had moved his music files to an external drive. It appears that we only moved the music files and not the library.itl file. We have a backup from November of the library.itl file.
1. His ipod is fine. He wants to be able to pull the playlist info from his ipod to restore the info on the library.itl file. Is that possible?
2. If that is not possible, what are the ramifications of restoring the library.itl file from November? Will he "lose" the music that was added since then?

1. Not with itunes, sadly. It will try to wipe the ipod since it is a 'new 'library.
2. Yes, he'll lose everything added since November.

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