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REDLANDS – Just as the A.K. Smiley Public Library is set to trim its hours of operation, patrons may now access books from home any time of the week.

In May, the library expanded its offerings to include audio books and online books that library cardholders can download from their home computers, or anyplace they have Internet access. This comes as the library cuts its hours next week in response to city budget cuts.

Cardholders may tap into the Southern California Digital Library for free and access thousands of titles, said Principal Librarian Lorraine Estelle.

“It’s a great collection,” Estelle said. “A lot of these titles are current.”

The digital collection can be reached through the library’s website and is available in a number of forms, Estelle said. With high-speed Internet, it only takes a few minutes to download the content.

The books can then be transferred to iPods, Sony Readers, and other mobile devices, Estelle said. Some audio titles can be burned to CDs after downloading.

Users may check out a title for up to two weeks at a time and after that period, the access expires, so there are no late fees, Estelle said.

“It works just like checking out a book,” said Library Director Larry Burgess.

Estelle hopes the fact that the books are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, will help lessen the impact to the community when the library cuts hours.

The library will be open nine fewer hours per week beginning next week as a result of the city’s $8.9 million deficit, Burgess said.

He said budget cuts were not a reason for bringing the online program to A.K. Smiley, but it provides new resources to patrons when money is tight.

The Friends of the A.K. Smiley Public Library is funding the program, which is free to those with a library card, Burgess said. Last month, the friends donated $13,500 to the library so it could purchase computers and iPads allowing patrons who do not have Internet access take advantage of the online books and audio books, said friends commissioner Ted Parsons.

Parsons said he hopes younger patrons will take advantage of the new resources, and the library needed to venture into the online market to keep up with the times.

In its first month, Burgess said the online collection has been a hit with patrons, and some new people have even signed up for a free library card so they can access it. Estelle said roughly four dozen different users have accessed electronic books, with 100 titles downloaded.

The eBooks and audio books are available at www.akspl.org.

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