Library users with Internet-enabled cellphones can now visit the library's web portal to search for library books and also to check when their books are due to be returned.

They can also renew their book loans or reserve books currently unavailable, among its features.

Snappily named 'Library in Your Pocket', the portal aims to make it easy for people on the go to access these library services, said NLB project manager Lilian Chua.

In mobile-phone mad Singapore, it 'is the most logical device to base the portal on', she added, in a briefing to reporters this week.

The portal is now available at http://m.nlb.gov.sg and will be on trial till January.

With the portal being able to tell the library user when his books are due for return, the NLB holds out hope that its long-standing problem of unpaid fines and fees will be alleviated.

Among other moves, it went some way to tackle this problem from last month, by barring library members from checking out any more books or other materials if they have unpaid fines; in February, it sent out a flood of reminder notices to errant members.

As at May 1, more than $900,000 in owed fines had been recovered, but this made up only about 13 per cent of the $6.5 million owed to the library as at Jan 15.

The outstanding sum had continued to grow because members were previously allowed to accumulate fines up to $6 before their borrowing privileges were suspended.

In April, only $128,000 was collected. Since February, about 270,000 errant members have paid up, leaving another 430,000 members still in arrears - some with debts going back years.