By Kate Thorman

It’s no secret that Los Altos residents love their libraries. The statistics bear this out: The Los Altos public libraries have the highest circulation in the No. 1 ranked library system in the country. Santa Clara County is ranked best among library systems serving a population between 250,000 and 499,999 people, according to Hennen’s American Public Library Ratings.

A group of longtime library supporters have created the Los Altos Library Endowment (LALE) to add another dimension to community backing for the libraries.

Residents will be able to “show the love” for their libraries in a variety of ways beyond buying used books from the longstanding Friends of the Los Altos Library. LALE will enable tax-deductible donations of large sums through such mechanisms as estate planning.

According to Graham Wallace, president of the group organizing the endowment, it will be a perpetual source of revenue for the library, because money will be spent from interest accumulated, not the principal. The endowment, currently at $400,000, would be used for major library projects, such as building expansion or additional staffing for longer hours, Wallace said.

To mark the endowment’s creation, organizers have scheduled an April 11 event featuring author Nancy Packer. The author and professor emeritus of English at Stanford University will discuss sources of fiction and read an excerpt from her short story collection, “Jealous-Hearted Me.”

This talk is the first in a propposed annual event, “Speaking Volumes.” Endowment member Bob Simon said the group is “very honored to have (Nancy Packer) come as our first guest speaker. We’re very lucky to have her as a good neighbor.” The talk will be held at 4 p.m. in the Program Room of the library. Former Los Altos Mayor Marge Bruno, an endowment organizer, will discuss the endowment. Open house tours of the library will be available.

The endowment is an outgrowth of Vision 21, a 1995 campaign to raise money for science and technology library resources. Organizers raised $330,000.

Wallace said the campaign was so successful, there was money left over after the library bought the sought-after Vision 21 materials. “We wrote a letter to everyone who contributed $100 or more asking if we could preserve (the remainder) for an endowment. They all said yes.”

Endowment organizers spent the past year preparing it for non-profit status for tax deductions. LALE was incorporated as a separate non-profit in January.

The endowment further emphasizes the ongoing love affair between Los Altos main and Woodland libraries and the community. For many longtime library users, the news of a No. 1 ranking comes as no surprise.

“The most important thing is that we recognize that we have been rated No. 1 by an objective rating source,” Head Librarian Cheryl Houts said.

The consistent excellence of the Santa Clara County Library System is demonstrated by the fact that the last time this ratings survey ran — in 1999 — the system achieved the same high status that it did in 2002.

Many different aspects of the library were evaluated, including: how much money is spent on materials per capita, volumes of books per capita, circulation per capita, the number of visits each year, and how many reference questions are answered. In an effort to thank their staff for all the hard work, the Santa Clara County Library System presented staff members with ribbons displaying their No. 1 status. Los Altos’ main library and Woodland library workers say they owe it all to the community, and are trying to thank patrons.

Shortly after the ratings were announced in October, everyone who came to either library received a pencil with a star and a No. 1 on the end, as well as the library’s Web site address printed on the side. “Our community is whom we’re thanking … we’re really quite proud of our library and our community. The community supports us so much,” Houts said.

In addition to the Friends of the Library and the endowment, local libraries also benefit from a parcel tax. As a result, the library is open extra hours - hours the county itself wasn’t able to afford. The additional hours are Monday and Tuesday mornings, Friday evenings, and Sunday all day. Other libraries in the county are not required to remain open for these hours. “The community supports extra hours above and beyond what the county expects of us,” Houts said.

Volunteers offer approximately 7,000 hours of their time each year to the Los Altos libraries. According to Houts, 12,000 volunteer hours are given overall to the Santa Clara County libraries each year.

Volunteers at the Los Altos main and the Woodland libraries perform a variety of tasks. Some work behind the scenes — sorting books and organizing catalogs. Others work as computer docents to assist people with computers and the Internet, and some work in the coffee shop — the only one of its kind in the Santa Clara County system.

Other volunteers work as members of the Friends of the Library, an organization devoted to funding the immediate needs of the library, such as new books and the main library’s coffee shop. The Friends collect book donations, hold a continuous used book sale and give all proceeds to the library.

Houts said the LALE will ensure that the library will always be financially secure “in case of coming into hard times, as we did several years ago due to state budget cuts.”

“We expect budget cuts will be made,” Simon said. “In order to protect the library from problems that arise, we have established a fund to be here in perpetuity. I think it’s wonderful that a community like Los Altos can establish and develop a fund that will help the library continue to serve the community as well as it is serving it today.”

The timing of the endowment announcement coincides with next week - designated as National Library Week. Local events include a group discussion of Isabel Allende’s “The House of the Spirits” 7:30 p.m., April 9, in the Los Altos main library’s small conference room. Both adults and teens are welcome. The children’s department will put on a program called “Poetry Play,” for children 5 and up, 11 a.m., April 12.

For more information on the library or upcoming events, logon to www.santaclaracountylib.org/losaltos. For more information on the ratings, logon to www.haplr-index.com For more information on the endowment or to make a donation, e-mail