E-magazines are now available at the Portage Regional Library.

Librarian Percy Gregoire-Voskamp explains this is part of a deal put together by the Manitoba Library Consortium for bulk purchase of e-magazines with the chosen product being Zinio, a digital distribution service for e-magazines. Gregoire-Voskamp mentions since the service is new to the library they are still experimenting with it.

"It was effective the first of August but we're still experimenting with it ourselves and we're still setting things up. At the moment we only have 50 titles, beginning January the first we'll have 140 titles."

This service is accessible to all library members and the process to set up an e-magazine account is similar to the one for e-books. Gregoire-Voskamp compares e-books to e-magazines.

"Unlike with the e-books there is no waiting list, it's unlimited access. So if a hundred people want to read [the same magazine], from this library at the same time, they can all get access to it."

He adds the e-magazines can be kept by the reader for an unlimited amount of time.

There is an information page on the library's website for those wishing to learn more about Zinio e-magazines.