diff --git a/Changes b/Changes
index 5d2a9c6..68caaa5 100644
--- a/Changes
+++ b/Changes
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-0.58.5 2019-03-15
+0.58.5 2019-03-18
     - [bugfix] Fix bug where duplicate keys occured in
       field data output (diewald)
     - [bugfix] Fix bug where fields already set where lifted
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
     - [bugfix] Fixed #53 element distance query bug (margaretha)
     - [bugfix] Workaround for #54 failing offsets due to
       surrogate pairs (diewald)
+    - Added isReaderOpen method (margaretha)
 
 0.58.4 2019-02-05
     - [cleanup] Remove deprecated methods setLicense/getLicense,
diff --git a/src/main/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/KrillIndex.java b/src/main/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/KrillIndex.java
index 976fe86..aecbf30 100644
--- a/src/main/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/KrillIndex.java
+++ b/src/main/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/KrillIndex.java
@@ -1893,4 +1893,8 @@
         mc.close();
         return mc;
     };
+    
+    public boolean isReaderOpen () {
+        return readerOpen;
+    }
 };
diff --git a/src/test/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/index/TestKrillIndex.java b/src/test/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/index/TestKrillIndex.java
index b9c2320..3aeb9b9 100644
--- a/src/test/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/index/TestKrillIndex.java
+++ b/src/test/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/index/TestKrillIndex.java
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@
     @Test
     public void indexExample () throws IOException {
         KrillIndex ki = new KrillIndex();
+        assertEquals(ki.isReaderOpen(), false);
 
         assertEquals(0, ki.numberOf("base", "documents"));
         assertEquals(0, ki.numberOf("base", "tokens"));
@@ -73,8 +74,10 @@
         /* Save documents */
         ki.commit();
 
+        assertEquals(ki.isReaderOpen(), false);
         assertEquals(2, ki.numberOf("base", "documents"));
         assertEquals(7, ki.numberOf("base", "sentences"));
+        assertEquals(ki.isReaderOpen(), true);
 
         fd = new FieldDocument();
 
@@ -87,6 +90,7 @@
                 + "[(4-8)s:baum|l:baum|p:NN]");
         ki.addDoc(fd);
 
+        
         /* Save documents */
         ki.commit();