A fundraiser they did five years ago at Borders Books and Music brought a considerable amount of money to another nonprofit organization. They decided another such "benefit day" would help the history project and began organizing "Hooked on Los Gatos."

"This is a very important issue, and we've lived in town for a third of a century," Ira Spector said. "We just thought this is something that needed attention. It's hard to raise money—especially these days—but if we can get [companies] to sponsor the history project, then everyone wins."

So the Spectors lined up the three-day fundraiser, during which 15 percent of income from purchases accompanied by a special voucher will be donated to Friends of the Library for the history project. The fundraiser, which includes booksignings, presentations and live music, will be held at the bookstore chain's 50 University Ave. location and runs from its opening on Aug. 13 to its closing on Aug. 15. It is co-sponsored by Borders, the Los Gatos Museum Association, Village Printers, Friends of the Los Gatos Library, the Spectors and the Los Gatos Weekly-Times.

Library Director Peggy Conaway said she has applied for grant funding for the history project, but it is currently running on donations alone. She started the project after stumbling across hundreds of years' worth of town history in the form of photographs, letters and other historical documents.

Now, she is building a database—which will be available online—of those and other historical items. Paul Kopach, who also works as an on-call librarian, has been scanning and cataloging images using equipment donated by IBM and the Los Gatos Lions Club.

Conaway said the Borders fundraiser will help pay Kopach, without whom she said the project would be nearly impossible.

"With a project of this size and scope, I have to have a staff member who reports to me," she said. "It's a very large undertaking ... It could be volunteer-run completely if someone were willing to take that responsibility on to meet with me. But with volunteers—they can be wonderful, but if they want to go to Europe for a month, they can go."

Scott Vancil, area marketing manager for Borders, said similar fundraisers often only last one day. But he said the cause was such a worthy one, and Spector such a great organizer, that an entire weekend seemed appropriate.

"It's a wonderful program," Vancil said. "Ira Spector's been really instrumental and great in making this happen. We thought it would be great to push it for the entire weekend."

Spector said that he and his wife are very concerned about the history of Los Gatos being preserved.

"I think that we're all sort of wrapped up in the present," he said. "And rightly so, because everything is changing and scary. But to be able to focus on the past for a change is very refreshing. I think it's special to be able to forget about the Middle East and forget about the elections for a minute."

The Spectors, who wrote a book about their experiences renting a villa on the French Riviera, will be signing books during the weekend, along with local authors Marco Zecchin and Dick Lake. The authors will give presentations at 7 p.m. on each night of the fundraiser. Conaway will give a presentation based on her forthcoming book, a pictorial history of Los Gatos.

Vouchers will be available at various locations throughout the town and in the Weekly-Times.