Library providing access to digital magazines at no charge

The Lincoln Branch of the Lewis & Clark Library has long offered digital materials for patrons to check out, including ebooks, streaming movies, music, and audiobooks. This week, the library launched access to 130 digital magazine subscriptions at no charge for patrons.

These new magazine subscriptions are one of the ways the Montana State Library is investing funds received from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

The Montana State Library manages the MontanaLibrary2Go collaborative collection, which includes more than 25,000 ebooks and audiobooks, as well as the new magazines subscriptions, with back issues for many of the titles. Because the Lewis & Clark Library, along with 93 other libraries across the state, is part of the MontanaLibrary2Go consortium, Lincoln patrons can check out any of these titles.

When the COVID-19 pandemic closed the doors on many Montana libraries in March of 2020, more than 3,000 new patrons began using MontanaLibrary2Go in March and April of 2020, and nearly 15,000 more items were checked out from this collection in April than in February of last year. The new magazines will provide access to a broader variety of materials for these users.

The magazine collection includes numerous hunting and outdoor titles, such as "Field & Stream," "Deer & Deer Hunting," and "Outdoor Life." The collection also includes a number of finance titles as well as subscriptions for horse aficionados, crafters and quilters, woodworkers, families and children, writers, and athletes. Find the full list of magazines at https://montana.overdrive.com/collection/1159834.

Unlike most materials in the MontanaLibrary2Go collection, the new magazines are always available. Patrons can check out up to five items at a time and then return those when they're finished to check out more.

The easiest way to access these collections is to download the Libby app to a smartphone or tablet. Patrons can then use their library card and PIN to sign in.

Lincoln patrons also have access to three other digital material services provided by the Lewis and Clark Library. These services are all accessible from the library website or via app and include Hoopla, which allows for the checkout of downloadable movies, music, comics, ebooks, and audiobooks; Axis360, which has ebooks and audiobooks; and RBDigital, which has an additional selection of magazines.

As always, library cards are provided at no charge to Lewis & Clark County residents. Patrons can now get a library card online by visiting http://www.lclibrary.org. In addition to digital materials, the Lincoln Library continues to offer free faxing, wifi, and curbside pickup as well as telephone reference and reader's advisory services.

For more information, help accessing the digital materials or in finding and installing the apps, call the library at 362-4300 or visit https://www.lclibrary.org/236/Download-Books-Music-Movies.