When sophomore William Lenz checked out a Kindle from the school library, he was able to use it with ease.

“It’s really simple, really easy to use,” Lenz said. “It makes reading easier.”

Lenz has been reading Ally Condie’s “Matched” trilogy and in addition to enjoying the novels, he appreciates the straightforwardness of the Kindle.

“The books—they’re already on the Kindle so you get to pick the book that you want to read,” Lenz said.

Last semester, the library began offering e-readers and e-books for checkout as a pilot program for the district. Although the e-readers are ready for checkout, some students still don’t know they are available or how to check one out.

The school has five Kindle Paperwhites ready for check out and a Kindle Fire that is currently unavailable.

The process to obtain an e-reader for two weeks at a time is simple. Each student wishing to checkout a Kindle Paperwhite and their parents have to sign a form that outlines the policies that come with having a school-issued Kindle prior to checkout.

The library has divided books onto five Kindles: Mystery/Suspense/Horror, Young Adult, Romance, Sci-Fi and Classics/Historical Fiction/Biography.

Library assistant Chris Everett feels e-readers have some advantages over traditional books.

“It’s pretty lightweight: fits in your backpack, fits in your purse; it’s very portable,” Everett said. “With the Kindle paperwhites, you can hold it with one hand and use your finger to turn the pages, so it’s really easy and user friendly.”

Currently there are no penalties in place for holding an e-reader past its due date or damaging it, but by next school year that could change.

Because the Kindles are under warranty, Amazon will replace any that are damaged until the warranty expires at the end of the summer. Everett does not know what will become of damaged Kindles after that time.

If all of the Kindles are checked out, there is another option: e-books. Any student with a smartphone or tablet can access the district e-book library.

“[With an app] called Overdrive … you can go to the school district library website where you can download e-books that the library has purchased to read on your device,” Everett said.