To meet the technological needs of more than 3.3 million annual visitors, Santa Clara County libraries are being outfitted with free, high-speed Internet access over the next few months.

Library patrons in Los Altos (including the Woodland branch), Cupertino, Campbell, Milpitas, Saratoga, Morgan Hill and Gilroy will soon be able to log on to the Internet with their own laptop computers and other personal mobile devices while in the library wireless (Wi-Fi) zone.

“It’s a convenience that our public has requested, and we are pleased we had funding available to add wireless Internet service at all of our libraries,” said Curtis Cole, vice chairman of the Santa Clara County Library Joint Powers Authority.

Santa Clara County librarian Melinda Cervantes expects that the new wireless Internet access service will be up and running at all branches by March.

“This is the type of enhanced customer service we seek to deliver to our communities,” Cervantes said.

Customer service is one of several factors that has placed the Santa Clara County Library among the top 100 public libraries in the United States for five consecutive years, according to an annual survey published each fall in American Libraries magazine.

Hennen’s American Public Library Ratings ranks 9,027 libraries across the country, evaluating them on such measures as number of visits per capita, circulation per capita, percentage of library’s budget spent on materials, number of periodicals per 1,000 residents and staffing per 1,000 residents.

For more information on the Santa Clara County Library system, visit www.santaclaracountylib.org.