Paper catalog and digital catalog – Reading behaviors of college students in Taiwan

Abstract

This study focused on undergraduates with varying reading habits and investigated their behavioral differences as well as the structural relationships between their attitude toward reading paper and digital catalogs, their digital usage behavior, and their paper and on-screen reading literacy. Fifty undergraduate students from Northern Taiwan comprised the sample population and were interviewed in depth. Comparative analysis was conducted on the behaviors between reading paper and digital catalogs. The results show that paper catalogs emphasized (a) richness of content messages, (b) viewing comfort of graphics editing, (c) convenience of storage, (d) connectivity of data search, and (e) influence of applied operations, whereas digital catalogs focused on (a) interactivity of media exchange, (b) immediacy of feedback sharing, (c) authenticity of audio–video transmission, (d) interoperability of service platform, and (e) potential of diverse internationality. Based on these qualities, the reading behaviors of undergraduate students who read using paper and digital catalogs were investigated and compared to determine the influence of paper and on-screen reading on the students. Finally, strategic recommendations for promoting digital catalogs are proposed through inductive analysis.