Cherishing books and the people and institutions that nurture them has always come naturally to school psychologist Brittany Stevens. 

Countless memories, milestones and obstacles alike have marked the 18 years that Stevens has belonged to a tight-knit 4-person book club of fellow teachers and educators. Through it all, she has only grown closer to the members at its heart, to the point where she can often tell exactly which member is behind each month’s selection.

“We’ve been together longer than some of the people in our group have been married,” Stevens said. “After all of this time, I feel like I know these people and their stories. They’re people who know and care about me, and I feel the same about them.”

Libraries provide Stevens with a similar sense of belonging and security. To her, they contain a uniquely welcoming atmosphere that cannot be found in many other public spaces.

“You can’t stay for hours browsing at a store or going to a coffee shop without being expected to have purchased something in exchange for being able to spend your time there,” Stevens said. “A library is one of the few places in the community where you don’t have any expectations put on you. It’s one of the few places in modern life where you can still go for free and just spend time.”

She sees her lifelong experience with giving back to her local libraries — from watching her parents help man book sales at the Los Altos Library as a five-year-old to volunteering at the same sales every Sunday with her family now — as a way of both expressing her gratitude for them and simply enjoying all they have to offer.

“I really support keeping the library a place for the community to gather in a variety of ways,” Stevens said. “I love the idea that books are so important to communities that they’re made free, and I love that the ability to access knowledge is so important to a community that libraries exist.”