Hardtack and Coffee: Or the Unwritten Story of Army Life. The Story the Soldiers Wouldn’t Tell: Sex in the Civil War. Forty Miles a Day on Beans and Hay: The Enlisted Soldier Fighting the Indian Wars. Old Nutriment.

These are all titles of books that Seen the Glory: A Novel of the Battle of Gettysburg author John Hough Jr. was encouraged to read in his research for the book. They are not titles that were available at Mr. Hough’s local library in West Tisbury.

But he got them anyway.

“They’re books that I got here through the loan program,” he explained to a crowd of West Tisbury library supporters gathered Sunday evening in the sunny yard behind the library building. “And these people found them for me in very, very quick time,” he said of the library staffers. “How they found them, I don’t know.”

Mr. Hough was the first author to offer a testimonial for the library, at the weekend’s Library After Hours event to kick off a year-long-fund-raising effort to raise money to expand the building.

“This isn’t about space really, because these books aren’t here and no matter how big this enlargement is, they’re not going to carry Old Nutriment. But it’s about the way these people help all of us and help writers. I love coming to this library. They need more room, obviously. They love to put books in the hands of people who want them. These were esoteric books I needed and wanted and [library staff members] put them in my hands with wonderful enthusiasm, and pleasure, and warmth,” said Mr. Hough. “This library is obviously the best library on the Vineyard. But that’s not slighting the other libraries on the Vineyard, because it’s the best library in the country. Let’s give them what they want.”

What they want is to expand the library facility to accommodate the growing needs of a community that treasures time spent within its walls: 85 per cent of West Tisbury residents hold a library card. Over 100,000 people walk annually through the doors. It holds the largest collection of all Island libraries. And yet that collection is contained within one of the smallest library facilities on the Island, second only to Aquinnah.

Perhaps more importantly, as West Tisbury Library foundation president Tony Omer put it to Sunday night’s crowd, “The library also has one of the most used public bathrooms in town. And it only has one! Please help us build another.”

If you were smart enough to arrive at the event on time at 6 p.m., you just narrowly got the chance to fill a plate with some of the gourmet finger foods, prepared by various local Island chefs, that were laid out under the shade of a great white tent behind the library building. But the crowd grew swiftly, and within the hour, platters were cleared of the tomato, mozzarella and basil skewers, cream cheese and veggie-topped cucumber slices, mini lobster rolls, sesame noodle salad and prosciutto-wrapped asparagus.

Once the food was gone, satisfied guests sipped quietly on their wine as library trustees and employees took turns at the microphone to explain the purpose of the event.

“We have an opportunity to expand our library, and the state will possibly pay for half of it,” said library director Beth Kramer. The town selectmen last week voiced their support for the project by proclaiming the coming year the year of the library, and Sunday night served as the kickoff event. “We’ll be doing many other things through the course of the year and the culmination at the end of the year will be a reading by David McCullough,” said Ms. Kramer.

Library trustee Dan Waters followed at the microphone. “A library is unique in that it’s entirely ours. We get the run of the library. The library is the people’s building. That tells you right there how important the library is as a community center, and that’s why we attract as many people as we do,” he said. “The fact that we need a bigger library is nothing new. What we want to talk about tonight is this opportunity that we have for a state grant that could pay 50 per cent of the cost of expanding the library. This is a pretty good deal. We have to act quickly and one of the things that we have to do is to demonstrate widespread public support for the library.”

Mr. Waters said the support of private donors will make the state stand up and take notice. And in turn, the donors will benefit from the deal. “This is one of those opportunities where private funding can release an enormous amount of public funding. It’s really an ideal case of leveraging where a small contribution can mean an awful lot more,” he said. “So for $1.2 million, we get a $5.6 million library addition,” he said.

To show their support, Mr. Hough and several other local authors stood to speak on the library’s behalf. Introducing the special guests, Mr. Omer said: “We have an incredible community here. Here on the Island and here in West Tisbury. And one of the things that makes it so special to me is the fact that we have so many people here who produce the material that ends up on the shelves of libraries. We have an incredible wealth of writers on this Island.”

Mr. McCullough, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who lives on Music street, just around the corner from the library, made an eloquent speech in support of the West Tisbury library and the American library system in general.

“I believe fervently that our library system is one of the greatest accomplishments of our country. Free to the people. Free. To walk through the portals of a library . . . is to walk through the portals of freedom. Libraries are an inexhaustible storehouse of ideas, and everybody is welcome, free. No other nation in the world, no civilization in the world has ever attained that,” Mr. McCullough said, adding that it’s up to members of the community to keep libraries like the one in West Tisbury vibrant and growing.

He ended his speech on a hopeful note: “I want to leave you with one thought, which I find heartening in the extreme. If you ever get down about the state of our learning, the state of our education, the state of our culture, take heart. There are still more public libraries in America than there are McDonalds.”