By LESLEY MITCHELL

| The Salt Lake Tribune

Trying to save more money this year? You may want to dust off your library card.

The Salt Lake City Public Library system has a variety of resources — some of which aren’t widely known — that can help stretch your family’s budget.

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At a glance

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Library resources

For more information, call 801-524-8200.

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If you’re looking for something to do, check out the library system’s Community Exploration Card, 10 which are made available at the beginning of each month at each of the six library locations. The cards provide free general admission for up to four people to four popular Salt Lake-area attractions, Red Butte Garden, Discovery Gateway children’s museum, the Natural History Museum and The Leonardo museum.

"These cards are claimed pretty quickly, usually by the end of the first day of each month," said Julianne Hancock, communications manger for the library.

It’s easy to see why. Regular one-day admission to Discovery Gateway alone costs $8.50 per person, or $34 for a family of four.

Cards are distributed on a first-come first-served basis. For more information, call (801) 524-8200.

If the cost of renting or streaming movies is adding up for your family, you may want to scope out the selection of films offered by the library.

For everything from "Best Picture Oscar Winners" to "Great Sports Films," go to www.slcpl.lib.ut.us/libLists for various collections of popular movies and books.

The library also has plenty of recently released movies on DVDs and a variety of educational and historical programs available digitally. Go to www.slcpl.lib.ut.us, click on "Collections" and scroll to the bottom of the page for more information about streaming movies and video programs through the Films on Demand service.

Hancock said many library cardholders don’t realize they also can tap Sony’s music catalog through an agreement between the library system and a service called Freegal. Patrons can download as many as three songs per week. "We have Beyonce’s latest album, popular titles, independent stuff, you name it," she said.

Go to www.slcpl.lib.ut.us and type in Freegal in the search field for more information.

Just as music purchases can add up, so can money spent on e-books. That’s why demand for borrowing e-books is growing rapidly. Cardholders have access to more than 6,000 e-books and e-audiobooks from the Salt Lake City Public Library System. Although the share of e-books still remains only a fraction of the overall volume of books the library has available, "we’re adding more and more books every week," Hancock said.

Books may be downloaded to a host of devices such as the Kindle, Apple iPad and iPhone, Android, and Blackberry devices, as well as to personal computers. For more information about e-books, go to Overdrive.slcpl.org.

Other library resources you may not know about:

Literacy Kits • Each has several books, a game, a DVD or CD, flash cards and other resources built around a particular theme. The kits are designed to help preschool-age children succeed with reading and other basic skills. The main library has them in the children’s department.

"We love the literacy kits," said Victoria Saley of Salt Lake City, who visits one of the Salt Lake City library branches twice monthly. "We checked out one on colors and it had books, blocks, beanbags and all these activities for your children.

Saley, whose children are ages 18 months, 6 years and 8 years, said she especially likes the library’s storytime programs for toddlers, which help them get used to the idea of sitting down and listening as a book is being read. She also enjoys checking out books, movies and CDs for her children.