Matters of materiality : researchers' use of print and digital formats for academic reading

Sammanfattning: Searching, accessing, reading, and storing academic literature is increasingly done with the help of digital devices. This master’s thesis presents the results of a qualitative study on researchers’ academic reading practices, including the surrounding practices of searching for and storing the literature. The aim of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding of researchers' use of academic literature on paper and on screens. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten researchers within four different research areas from a university college in Norway. The theoretical framework used to discuss the results is practice theory, with the concepts materiality and affordance. Key findings are that there is not always concordance between what the researchers say they prefer and what they do, as they have a pragmatic approach. The respondents see pros and cons of both formats, and they use both, depending on the situation and what their aim is. The surrounding practices are often done digitally, while deep reading is preferred to do on paper, by the majority. The first reading of a text, which is browsing through it to see whether the text is relevant or not, is always done on screen, while most of the respondents prefer to print out articles when they are to be read thoroughly, as they value the physical properties of paper. However, the respondents of this study are more positive to screen reading than what is seen in previous research, and many of them wish to improve their skills when it comes to e-reading.Keywords: Academic reading, researchers, digital reading, reading practices,