PHILADELPHIA -- University of Pennsylvania students can now check out a laptop computer to do research, write papers and check e-mail.

Van Pelt-Dietrich Library patrons can borrow Mac "I-Book" and Dell "Latitude" laptops for three hours, the length of time of a battery charge. "The laptops give people more options," said Roy Heinz, the director of the Library information systems. The laptops have software that includes PowerPoint, Excel, Word and Internet Explorer. Borrowers can send their documents electronically to their e-mail accounts or transfer them to zip or floppy drives at a data transfer station in the Library.

In the Library Goldstein Undergraduate Study Center, the laptops are connected to a wireless network so students can access the Internet without a cable. In other areas of the Library, users can do word processing or other offline work.

The 20 laptops are additions to the Library 60 computers in the computer labs. "They don have to stay in the lab. They can go into a private seminar room. It gives students some privacy," Heinz said.