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GOSHEN, Utah County -- Like most school libraries, the shelves at Goshen Elementary School are stocked with a wide variety of children's books — books like "Curious George" and "Anne of Green Gables" are just some of the favorites.
But a new addition to the school library is actually getting the students to read more.
"It's gotten them really excited about reading the books, because they are on the computer. It's a new format. It's something kind of interesting and different," said Jenny Staheli, the school's librarian.
"Regular" books are great, but a bit more limited. Here they don't have a public library and the book mobile no longer travels here. So students have a new option in the " e-book" library.
"They can get on it anytime they have Internet access," Staheli said.. "They have an app you can actually download onto a mobile device like and iPad or Android or a new Kindle."
Each student receives an individual log-in to access any "e-book" in the online library. Multiple students can log-on and read the same book at the same time, which means no more waiting for that popular book to be returned.
It's gotten them really excited about reading the books, because they are on the computer. It's a new format. It's something kind of interesting and different.
–- Jenny Staheli, librarian.
Students don't even need to be at school to access the books.
"I think it's giving them a lot of access all the time, which is awesome, because the library's not open all the time," Staheli said.
And they can read at their own pace anywhere they like.
"You can carry your books around with you," Staheli said. "You can actually download them and just read them wherever you're at."
The e-library carries about 65 titles so far, but the school hopes to add to that number as more students become interested.
"I really think that this is going to be something that we use more and more and more," Staheli said. "And it's good. I feel that we're right on the edge of starting to know what we're doing and building up our library."
