Student Reading Practices in Print and Electronic Media

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 non-academic reading. Students found electronic media convenient, but most of them did not wish to switch to electronic media for their academic reading. Introduction The venerable activity of reading has undergone some recent technological changes. More and more materials are available electronically, and for those who want to read something in an electronic format, there are often many options available. One may read from a standard computer screen, a tablet computer, a small-form device such as a cell phone, a reading-specific digital device (an e-reader), or one may simply print out the relevant materials to read offline. Print is also an option, and still an important one for many. Although academic libraries are attempting to adjust to these new types of reading, it is not possible to adjust well without a strong understanding of students’ reading practices regarding these formats. College students’ reading needs are partially created by their status as students, so their reading may differ from that of other adults. Many of their classes require significant reading, whether this is in the form of specifically assigned readings or library research. Students might also read for pleasure, for work, to become better informed, or as part of their social lives, CO LL EG E & RE SE AR CH L IB RA RI ES P RE -P RI NT especially if their socializing is mediated by the internet. In each instance, readers are very likely to be confronted with a choice of formats, including those listed above. There is some evidence that many individuals do not limit themselves solely to either print or electronic media, but often use both.1 The current study seeks to understand what drives students’ choices in this respect. When do students move from one format to another? Do students prefer one format for academic reading, and another for leisure reading? Is there a difference between short form reading materials, such as articles, and long form reading materials, such as books? Through a twelve day diary study and two group interviews, this study seeks to explore some of these questions in order to provide some descriptive models of possible interactions among different formats within the lives of students.