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When times are tough, many area residents may find an Internet service bill or registration of a new computer program to be a luxury they cannot justify.

Luckily for them, their local library offers the service - and many others - for free six days a week.

''The economy is doing it all on its own, boosting the library usage,'' said Tina Scott, assistant director of the Prendergast Library. ''People have less money, and they use the library more because they can't buy those resources. With computers and the Internet becoming almost crucial to the way we live now, every single day when the library opens there's a line of people waiting to come in and use the public computers.''

Around the country, libraries are reporting increased usage in recent months, as people file in to use computers, do research and take classes to increase their skill sets. And at the library, it's all free.

''We have Internet computers that are free for the public to come in and use, and we also have WiFi now in the library, so anybody can bring their laptop in and get online for free,'' Ms. Scott said.

In addition to the Internet and computer applications available for people at the library, people also have the opportunity to pick up other items and use other resources at their local library for free - from the old standby of books through other forms of media.

According to Ms. Scott, libraries first saw the ability to bring people in with alternative media when they began offering movies for checkout free of charge.

''When libraries just started to circulate VHS and DVDs, usage right there in most libraries went up,'' she said. ''Some people don't read, but they love movies, so they're still getting their information - just in a different way. That alone was a big boost in circulation.''

Another way the library offers services to people, Ms. Scott said, is through the training and continuing-education opportunities it provides. From lessons about audio books to video conferences to demonstrations on how to use various computer programs, the library continually is reaching out to the community to offer programming that is likely not available elsewhere - at least without a price.

Ms. Scott says opportunities the library provides to citizens of the area help to bring those citizens back to use the library's other resources.

''If we do training on any type of new technology, that seems to have a positive impact on the usage of that resource,'' she said. ''I think when we offer the training and get the word out to people, that really helps to increase our circulation, because now we have people coming into the library saying 'Hey, this is really neat. I want to learn more about it.' So now we have books and instructional videos or CD-ROMs, anything that has to do with that particular subject or technology, they know they can get that information from us. So I think it all helps, and it kind of works together.''

It's the library's computer lab, with all its programs that people may not want to purchase for their own home use, that keeps people coming back the most, Ms. Scott said.

''People do use the computer lab in different ways,'' she said. ''People are very interested in doing their own type of desktop publishing or creating a scrapbook, and say they don't have all that equipment at home, they can come into the library and use it.''

For more information about the James Prendergast Library, including hours of operation and upcoming programs, visit www.prendergastlibrary.org or call 484-7135.