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The authors’ goal is to investigate variations in the writing style of book reviews published on different social reading platforms and referring to books of different genres, which enables acquiring insights into communication strategies adopted by readers to share their reading experiences.

The authors propose a corpus-based study focused on the analysis of A Good Review, a novel corpus of online book reviews written in Italian, posted on Amazon and Goodreads, and covering six literary fiction genres. The authors rely on stylometric analysis to explore the linguistic properties and lexicon of reviews and the authors conducted automatic classification experiments using multiple approaches and feature configurations to predict either the review's platform or the literary genre.

The analysis of user-generated reviews demonstrates that language is a quite variable dimension across reading platforms, but not as much across book genres. The classification experiments revealed that features modelling the syntactic structure of the sentence are reliable proxies for discerning Amazon and Goodreads reviews, whereas lexical information showed a higher predictive role for automatically discriminating the genre.

The high availability of cultural products makes information services necessary to help users navigate these resources and acquire information from unstructured data. This study contributes to a better understanding of the linguistic characteristics of user-generated book reviews, which can support the development of linguistically-informed recommendation services. Additionally, the authors release a novel corpus of online book reviews meant to support the reproducibility and advancements of the research.

A rising trend has been observed to minimize extraneous cognitive load when reading by enhancing secondary knowledge through technology. For the readers to comprehend information more efficiently in their cognitive architecture, instructional procedures, which are secondary knowledge, should be aligned with the modern technology environment. With continual, rapid technological advances in modern society, people have changed their news reading habits after using mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets and e-readers.

This research employed a quantitative survey to compare the changes in the news reading habits of the undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) students in the Library and Information Management program of a university in Hong Kong after using mobile devices to read electronic news. A total of 102 responses were collected, which comprised 51 UGs and 51 PGs, respectively (the student population for the program was around 100 UGs and 100 PGs).

Survey results showed that mobile devices had changed the respondents’ habit of reading news to read more content on phones, with a variation on news categories. Such changes included the duration and location of news discussion among the respondents that shorter periods were used to read and that more people read while traveling and in restaurants. Notably, reading the news helped respondents in their learning. Most respondents preferred to read electronic news by using mobile devices. The convenience of reading and discussing news may also cause a potential threat that intensifies disputes, arguments or even bullying on controversial issues.

This study confirmed that the usage of the mobile devices changed the respondents’ habit of reading news. This user group constitutes the future generation of information specialists in various disciplines. This study fills the research gap of finding students’ reading habits when using mobile devices, especially in East Asia. Educators are encouraged to recommend relevant news content to students to improve their general knowledge base and arouse their interest in reading and discussing related news topics.

PageWell, an e-reading platform provider, was preparing to launch PageWell 2.0 to the larger full-time MBA student market after a successful trial of PageWell 1.0 in Executive MBA (EMBA) classes at the Kellogg School of Management. Research had shown that full-time MBA students would be very interested in using products that allowed electronic access to course materials everywhere and across many platforms and that allowed electronic note-taking and storage. To better understand this user group, PageWell conducted a market research survey of students, faculty, and administrators to gauge their needs, preferences, and potential interest in the PageWell product. The study revealed that MBA student usage patterns, scenarios, and behavior varied significantly from EMBA student needs and perceptions. PageWell now had the task of prioritizing the product requirements and recalibrating the market requirements document to more accurately reflect student needs and thus create a viable product

After students have analyzed the case, they will be able to:

• Use customer feedback to help define requirements for a new product

• Understand the role of personas and scenarios in defining requirements

• Understand how to use scenarios and scenario templates to derive scenario implementation requirements

• Understand how to prioritize scenarios based on customer, company, and competitive criteria

• Write a market requirements document for a next-version technology produc

Use customer feedback to help define requirements for a new product

Understand the role of personas and scenarios in defining requirements

Understand how to use scenarios and scenario templates to derive scenario implementation requirements

Understand how to prioritize scenarios based on customer, company, and competitive criteria

Write a market requirements document for a next-version technology produc

Tablets are becoming mainstream devices for digital reading. Through user experience (UX), the purpose of this paper is to identify significant differences between tablet reading systems and other digital reading systems, explore potential requirements for the interactive interface, and propose design solutions so that user’ behavioral intention (BI) may be further enhanced.

First, the authors extracted the context of use and behavior patterns by conducting contextual inquiries; then, potential requirements were identified and design solutions were developed; last, the technology acceptance model was employed to verify research findings.

The outcome shows that the improved version of the interactive interface is significantly (p<0.05) superior to the original version in various aspects, including perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, user attitude, and BI.

So far, there has been no relevant research on UX concerning tablet reading systems. Therefore, this study first tried to investigate the primary difference between tablet reading systems and other digital reading systems in context of use and behavior patterns. Then, based on the foregoing discoveries, users’ motivations and perception of tablet readers were probed, and the problems with BI could be solved.

This study holistically and systematically consolidates the available research on digital reading to reveal the research trends of the past 20 years. Moreover, it explores the thematic evolution, hotspots and developmental characteristics of digital reading. This study, therefore, has the potential to serve as a research guide to researchers and educators in relevant fields.

The authors applied a bibliometric approach using Derwent Data Analyzer and VOSviewer to retrieve 2,456 publications for 2003–2022 from the Web of Science (WoS) database.

The results revealed that most studies' participants were university students and the experimental methods and questionnaires were preferred in digital reading researches. Among the influential countries or regions, institutions, journals and authors, the United States of America, University of London, Electronic Library and Chen, respectively, accounted for the greatest number of publications. Moreover, the authors identified the developmental characteristics and research trends in the field of digital reading by analyzing the evolution of keywords from 2003–2017 to 2018–2022 and the most frequently cited papers by year. “E-books,” “reading comprehension” and “literacy” were the primary research topics. In addition, “attention,” “motivation,” “cognitive load,” “dyslexia,” “engagement,” “eye-tracking,” “eye movement,” “systematic analysis,” “meta-analysis,” “smartphone” and “mobile reading/learning” were potential new research hotspots.

This study provides valuable insights into the current status, research direction, thematic evolution and developmental characteristics in the field of digital reading. Therefore, it has implications for publishers, researchers, librarians, educators and teachers in the digital reading field.

The purpose of this article is explore the difficulties in managing print and e-book expenditures in today’s libraries.

The basis for this article stems from conflicting data showing patrons desiring to read more e-books versus print books at the beginning of the very e-book movement, and more recent studies showing this trend plateauing while e-book reading device purchasing increases.

Two different phenomena may be occurring in tandem or separately in this case: less people are reading while having increased capacity to read e-books; libraries are adding more e-book content while print book reading is not falling off as fast as previously anticipated.

E-book expense allocations are far from an exact science. Library budget managers are in need for continued research and insight to guide decision-making. This article adds to extant research in this area providing support for a “wait-and-see” approach toward spending on e-books.

The aim of this research is to identify users' perceived affordances and explore how they influence the acceptance of an e‐reader device collaborative learning system.

The paper reports on two studies conducted to identify and explore perceived affordances. The first study enabled four users to experience a collaborative problem‐solving task to elicit perceived affordances. The second study developed and used a survey instrument based on a modified technology acceptance model with 54 participants to investigate the influences of the affordances on users' acceptance using the partial least square technique.

Five major affordance factors were found to be significantly influencing users' acceptance of the proposed system. These affordance factors are: mobility affordance, support affordance, connectivity affordance, immediacy affordance, and collaborative affordance. Surprisingly, sustainability affordance was found to have limited influence on the acceptance of the proposed system.

The findings can be applied to other e‐reader devices with features similar to iLiad such as Sony PRS, Kobo, Nook, PocketBook and Viewsonic. Prototyping is a critical design process which aims to elicit user experiences. The research implies that the prototype system is capable of generating perceived affordances that are useful for e‐reader device development in order to enhance acceptance. The convenience sample used in the survey is biased towards male participants. As male and female users perceive information and communications technologies (ICT) differently, caution should be taken when applying the findings to the general population.

Practitioners should focus on utilising the support affordance of the system and identifying clear learning goals with the help of collaborative affordance as the learning pedagogy. System designers should focus on creating a good range of visible support affordances that are intuitive, while enhancing or complementing the collaborative learning affordances. The design of an integrated chat application is important as it lays the foundation for ensuring that collaborative learning with e‐reader devices is possible.

E‐reader devices have not been studied extensively as collaborative learning systems. This research is believed to be the first to integrate and explore the use of an e‐reader device in a collaborative learning environment. This study introduces the concept of composite affordance with a modified technology acceptance model for investigating users' acceptance of an e‐reader device as a collaborative learning system.

The use of recommender systems is increasing on academic social media (ASM). However, distinguishing the elements that may be influenced and/or exert influence over content that is read and disseminated by researchers is difficult due to the opacity of the algorithms that filter information on ASM. In this article, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how algorithmic mediation through recommender systems in ResearchGate may uphold biases in scholarly communication.

The authors used a multi-method walkthrough approach including a patent analysis, an interface analysis and an inspection of the web page code.

The findings reveal how audience influences on the recommendations and demonstrate in practice the mutual shaping of the different elements interplaying within the platform (artefact, practices and arrangements). The authors show evidence of the mechanisms of selection, prioritization, datafication and profiling. The authors also substantiate how the algorithm reinforces the reputation of eminent researchers (a phenomenon called the Matthew effect). As part of defining a future agenda, we discuss the need for serendipity and algorithmic transparency.

Algorithms change constantly and are protected by commercial secrecy. Hence, this study was limited to the information that was accessible within a particular period. At the time of publication, the platform, its logic and its effects on the interface may have changed. Future studies might investigate other ASM using the same approach to distinguish potential patterns among platforms.

Contributes to reflect on algorithmic mediation and biases in scholarly communication potentially afforded by recommender algorithms. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first empirical study on automated mediation and biases in ASM.

An overview of the current use of handwritten text recognition (HTR) on archival manuscript material, as provided by the EU H2020 funded Transkribus platform. It explains HTR, demonstrates Transkribus, gives examples of use cases, highlights the affect HTR may have on scholarship, and evidences this turning point of the advanced use of digitised heritage content. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper adopts a case study approach, using the development and delivery of the one openly available HTR platform for manuscript material.

Transkribus has demonstrated that HTR is now a useable technology that can be employed in conjunction with mass digitisation to generate accurate transcripts of archival material. Use cases are demonstrated, and a cooperative model is suggested as a way to ensure sustainability and scaling of the platform. However, funding and resourcing issues are identified.

The paper presents results from projects: further user studies could be undertaken involving interviews, surveys, etc.

Only HTR provided via Transkribus is covered: however, this is the only publicly available platform for HTR on individual collections of historical documents at time of writing and it represents the current state-of-the-art in this field.

The increased access to information contained within historical texts has the potential to be transformational for both institutions and individuals.

This is the first published overview of how HTR is used by a wide archival studies community, reporting and showcasing current application of handwriting technology in the cultural heritage sector.

Engaging students through active learning is the gold standard of teaching especially in higher education; however, it is not clear whether students appreciate being so engaged. The purpose of this paper is to recount an attempt to redesign a lecture-based course, applying research-supported active learning strategies, and to report on student perceptions of the attempt.

The author attempted to innovate a standard lecture-based introductory social science class to engage students and facilitate authentic learning. The active learning innovations were learning by doing, collaboration, reading with a method, and increased autonomy. Student perceptions were measured over two iterations of the course (each one lasting one semester) using electronically distributed surveys.

The results have shown that most students strongly agreed that the innovations facilitated their learning; however, overall, the course received a lower student evaluation than versions given in the traditional lecture-based format.

The results suggest that students appreciate active learning strategies and that such strategies do indeed promote authentic learning; nonetheless, further research needs to be done to explain the paradox of specific student appreciation of active learning strategies combined with an overall less favorable evaluation of the class rooted in such strategies as compared to evaluations of the traditional lecture-based class.