Choosing readings: Portuguese academic library users' preferences for printed books or e-books

Abstract

The emergence of e-books as resources of scientific information in university libraries has been imposing at the pace of technology, with advantages such as portability, cost or accessibility, assuming that e-reading is being well received and appropriated by library users, who can access scientific information from anywhere. However, recent studies from prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, pointed to the resurgence of paper reading preferences. This study analyses the behavioural trends in the use of scientific information from these two media: printed books and ebooks and the way university libraries users choose to use it, particularly in the pandemic context. To this end, a survey is conducted on a sample of users from various Portuguese higher education schools. The first part focuses on the characterization of respondents, which includes data on gender, area of knowledge, academic level they attend. In the second part we seek the opinion about advantages and disadvantages of each medium, frequency of use, choice of medium according to the purpose of reading, devices used, acquisition suggestions for the library. The results allow us to observe the factors that influence and affect the behaviours of users regarding this choice. Studies such as these are important to support the decision in choosing the information resources to be purchased, taking into account user preferences, but also to outline strategies for promoting the use of various media.