Abstract
The reading format preferences of Finnish university students were studied as part of an international research project. The research material was compiled by a web based questionnaire sent to 18 universities in Finland and over 600 completed questionnaires were received. Printed class readings were preferred by a clear majority of informants, especially if the texts are long. However, only less than half of the informants would want all course materials in print format, often due to ecological reasons. Moreover, electronic publications are easy to store on a computer, and there is also a minority preferring electronic format, especially among students of technology. In most cases also informants with visual limitation preferred printed format to electronic, suggesting to the need for further develop the latter group.
References
Woody, W.D., Daniel, D.B., Baker, C.A.: E-books or textbooks: students prefer textbooks. Comput. Educ. 55, 945–948 (2010)
Wu, M., Chen, S.: Graduate students’ usage of and attitudes towards e-books: experiences from Taiwan. Prog.: Electron. Libr. Inf. Syst. 45(3), 294–307 (2011)
Robb, A.: 92 Percent of College Students Prefer Reading Print Books to E-Readers. New Republic (2015). http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120765/naomi-barons-words-onscreen-fate-reading-digital-world
The Finelib Consortium. The national library of Finland. http://www.nationallibrary.fi/libraries/finelib/
Taipale, S.: The affordances of reading/writing on paper and digitally in Finland. Telematics Inform. 31(4), 532–542 (2014)
Kortelainen, T.: An analysis of the use of electronic journals and commercial journal article collections through the FinELib portal. Inf. Res. 9(2), paper 168 (2004). http://InformationR.net/ir/9-2/paper168.html
Impact and Evaluation. FinELib. The national electronic library. The national library of Finland. http://www.nationallibrary.fi/libraries/finelib/imapctandevaluation.html
Mizrachi, D.: Undergraduates’ academic reading format preferences and behaviors. J. Acad. Librarianship 41(3), 301–311 (2015)
Loan, A.F.: Media preferences of the net generation college students. Int. J. Libr. Inf. Sci. 3(7), 155–161 (2011)
Tan, T.: College students still prefer print textbooks. publisher weekly (2014). http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/63225-college-students-prefer-a-mix-of-print-and-digital-textbooks.html
Lincoln, T.D.: Reading and e-reading for academic work: patterns and preferences in theological studies and religion. Theological Librarianship 6(2), 34–52 (2013)
Mangen, A., Walgermo, B.R., Bronnick, K.: Reading linear texts on paper versus computer screen: effects on reading comprehension. Int. J. Educ. Res. 58, 61–68 (2013)
Rainie, L., Zickuhr, K., Purcell, K., Madden, M., Brenner, J.: The Rise of E-reading. PewInternet & American Life Project, Washington, DC (2012). http://libraries.pewinternet.org/files/legacy-pdf/The%20rise%20of%20e-reading%204.5.12.pdf
Kang, Y.-Y., Wang, M.J., Rungtai, L.: Usability evaluation of e-books. Displays 30, 49–52 (2009)
Hartell, L.J., Cheek, F.M.: Preferred book formats in an academic medical center. J. Med. Libr. Assoc. 99(4), 313–317 (2011)
Evett, L., Brown, D.: Text formats and web design for visually impaired and dyslexic readers – clear text for all. Interact. Comput. 17(4), 453–472 (2006)
Creaser, C., Spacey, R., Hicks, D.: Assessing the Impact of Reading for Blind and Partially Sighted Adults. Report to RNIB. The Reading Agency, Loughborough University (2012). http://readingagency.org.uk/news/RNIB%20-%20Impact%20of%20reading%20report.pdf
Statistics Finland. Published 23.4.2013. http://tilastokeskus.fi/til/yop/2012/01/yop_2012_01_2013-04_23_tie_001_fi.html
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Professor Serap Kurbanoglu from Hacettepe University Department of Information Management and Associate Professor Joumana Boustany from Paris Descartes University Information and Communication Department for their initiation of and support for the international research project of which this study is part, and all partners of the research project.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Kortelainen, T. (2015). Reading Format Preferences of Finnish University Students. In: Kurbanoglu, S., Boustany, J., Špiranec, S., Grassian, E., Mizrachi, D., Roy, L. (eds) Information Literacy: Moving Toward Sustainability. ECIL 2015. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 552. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28197-1_45
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28197-1_45
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28196-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28197-1
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)