The New Brunswick Public Library Service plans to buy $100,000 worth of new e-books and downloadable audio books, thanks to a donation from the New Brunswick Public Libraries Foundation.

The donation will add about 4,000 new titles to the electronic library's virtual collection, just in time for Christmas when some New Brunswickers may discover e-readers or other mobile devices under the tree, officials said.

“This gift allows our public libraries to offer the most up-to-date electronic resources to New Brunswickers,” Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Minister Danny Soucy said in a release.

“This collection enables the growing number of those who read using mobile devices to access new titles as well as e-books and audio books already in demand.”

More than 1,000 electronic titles are expected to be borrowed between Dec. 24 and 26, up from about 600 during the same period last year, said officials.

In 2011, Christmas Day and Boxing Day proved to be the two busiest days of the year for the electronic library, which officials attributed to people receiving mobile devices as gifts.

The Electronic Library New Brunswick was created in 2010. The latest titles will bring the total collection to more than 13,000.