Student Reading Practices in Print and Electronic Media

Abstract

This paper reports a diary-based qualitative study on college students' reading habits with regard to print and electronic media. Students used a form to record information about their reading practices for twelve days, including length of reading event, location, format used, and the purpose of reading. Students tended to use print for academic and long-form reading and to engage with it more deeply. Although electronic resources were sometimes used for academic purposes, students often used them for shorter and nonacademic reading. Students found electronic media convenient, but most of them did not wish to switch to electronic media for their academic reading.

Time for Reflection?: Digital Text and the Emerging Paper Divide

“…6 I have found a similar thing thus far in my study. Although nearly 98 percent of the students surveyed reported doing some reading of electronic text on a screen, the Against the Grain / February 2015 <http://www.against-the-grain.com> continued on page 34 vast majority -some 80 percent -prefer reading print on paper.…”

Undergraduates' Academic Reading Format Preferences and Behaviors

“…Cost, convenience, accessibility, and weight of print books are other factors that impact format preferences. Nancy Foasberg at Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY) performed a qualitative study of students' reading practices in print and electronic formats in fall 2012 (Foasberg, 2014). Data from 17 student participants were gleaned from diaries they kept of their reading formats, times, and genres (academic article, academic book, textbook, fiction, etc.)…”

Book or NOOK? Information behavior of academic librarians

“…For example, a Pearson (2014) survey of college students found high number of students using laptops, smartphones, and tablets on an average school day. Other surveys of college students' information behavior found that students "do not limit themselves solely to either print or electronic media but often use both" (Foasberg, 2014, p. 705) and often print the materials they find in electronic format (Keller, 2012;Foasberg, 2014).…”

“…These reasons are frequently mentioned in the literature on information technology adoption (Lopatovska et al, 2014;Staiger, 2012;Rod-Welch et al, 2013). Librarians believe students use digital texts for short segments of text, a behavior identified across all categories of academic users (Staiger, 2012) and among students specifically (Foasberg, 2014;Rod-Welch et al, 2013). Interestingly, participants mentioned far fewer reasons for students to prefer print than they mentioned for themselves, perhaps due to a belief that the younger generation has fewer difficulties with reading digital media.…”