You can soon add the Saratoga Library to the growing list of wi-fi hotspots. With a library card and a laptop with a wireless receiver, Internet users will be able to browse the Net in the library free of charge.

At its Oct. 27 meeting, the Santa Clara County Library Joint Powers Association board approved a transfer of $195,580 from its technology reserve fund to its operating budget for the installation of wireless networks and equipment improvements for the Santa Clara County Library system.

County Librarian Melinda Cervantes said she expects wi-fi Internet access to be up and running at the Saratoga Library by March.

"People in the area have a great deal of knowledge in how to use wireless," Cervantes said. "We've been looking at this for a while and know that it's a highly demanded service. We were an early adopter of the Internet in 1994 and we've continued in that direction."

Cervantes said that wi-fi will give library users increased access not only to the Internet but also to the library collection. E-books and audio books would be available for downloading over the wireless network.

"We have a limit to the amount of equipment we can put on the floor," she said. "This opens up a whole new way for the library to offer service. It's such an inexpensive service and it expands our residents' access to our collections and to our information."

"It's costing 24 cents per resident to install this," she said. "I think the ongoing cost countywide is going to be less than $15,000 per year." Cervantes said that for the eight libraries in the Santa Clara County Library system, the cost was determined to be reasonable.

The new system will include filtered access in the children's area and limited bandwidth for each user in order to discourage "bandwidth hogs" that slow access for others.

"There are great security measures," she said. "We took the greater part of the year to design what we thought would be a really solid system."

Saratoga librarian Dolly Barnes said that wireless access would be convenient in more ways than one.

"Ever since we opened this building two years ago, people have been asking us about it," she said. "It will be more convenient for people who want to use our computers. It's good all the way around." Barnes said that there would be shorter lines for the library's computers once the wi-fi network is up and running and that group work using the Internet should become easier.

"We're looking forward to it," she said. "We want to serve as many people as we can."