THE PREFERENCE E-BOOK VERSUS PRINTED MATERIAL READING HABITS OF POLYTECHNIC LECTURERS

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1 THE PREFERENCE E-BOOK VERSUS PRINTED MATERIAL READING HABITS OF POLYTECHNIC LECTURERS Azura Mohd Salleh & Diana Mohd Alwi Department of Commerce Politeknik Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, Shah Alam, Malaysia ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to explore the preference of Polytechnic lecturers (Department of Commerce, Politeknik Shah Alam) reading habits between e-book and printed material. The effect of this transformation from printed material to e-books on the reading habits is also a subject worthy of deeper analysis. Thus, the purpose of this study is to analyze the variables relevant with the e-book reading habits of polytechnic lecturers (the aspects they deem advantageous, related purposes, methods of access, the most frequently used e-book environment and file formats). A set of questionnaire was adopted and a total of respondents are 53 out of 60 lecturers Department of Commerce was randomly selected based on the table for determining a sample size (Krejcie and Morgan s 1970). The descriptive statistic such as frequency and percentage were used to present the lectures profile, book reading habits, e-book reading habits and the most frequently used e-book medium and file formats. This finding may be bound to the fact that a vast majority of e-book format books are teaching materials. The fact that polytechnic lectures deem easy access of e-book as its biggest advantage is also supportive of the prevalence of e-book format for teaching materials. Although it is contradictory that polytechnic lecturers mostly read on articles-essay and course book type yet the aim of reading e-book is to work on teaching material and this case can be explained with restricted e-book resource in academic courses type. Therefore publishers should consider the publishing of e-book as a requirement in this field. This study can be as improvement to the library of Malaysian polytechnics to concern on e-book development in enhances the variety technology of reading and the accessibilities of reading material. Field of Research: e-book, e-learning, reading material transformation, education Introduction During the last 10 years e-book releases of publishers, e-book catalogues prepared by university libraries, easy internet access to resources have all together contributed to the spread of e-book use. E-books are as software objects as well as physical devices. Understood as a software object, an e- book is simply an electronic text that serves the same purpose as a conventional printed book and may also share some of the look and feel of a printed book. E-books may also be enhanced with other electronic features such as embedded hyperlinks, bookmarks, annotation, text searching and the linking of complex multimedia objects and may also be of great assistance for those with disabilities (Ingraham and Bradburn, 2003). E-books represent a logical step on the timeline of publishing and the evolution of digital collections. Like all Internet-based resources, e-books break down geographic barriers. As Garrod (2003) states, if a digital library is defined as an electronic extension of functions users typically perform and the resources they access in a traditional library then e-books are a natural addition to digital collection. Some defined e-book as text that is available in an electronic format such as Word s doc, txt, HTML or XML (Hawkins, 2000; Ormes, 2002; McKnight and Dearnley, 2003; Vidana, 2003). Other definitions related to the conversion from print to electronic aspects of e-books, as printed text converted into digital form to be read on a computer screen (Saurie and Kaushik, 2001; Desmarais, 4-5 March 2014, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA. Organized by WorldConferences.net 590

2 1994). Some definitions combined both the electronic text as well as the electronic reader device that is required for e-book to be read (Abrew, 2001; Lynch, 2001; Goh, 2003; Grant, 2002). Connaway (2003) defined e-book as a publication that characterized an electronic format, utilizing Internet technology to make it easy to access and use. Rao (2003) defined e-book as text in digital form, or book converted into digital form, or digital reading material, or a book in a computer file format, or an electronic file of words and images displayed on a desktop, note book computer, or portable device, or formatted for display on dedicated e-book readers. 2. Problem statement The number of ebooks published each year has grown steadily since 2005, but in the last two years the rate of growth has greatly accelerated. In 2009 alone, wholesale ebook sales were almost 200% greater than they were in 2008 (University of Liverpool e-book Study, 2010). At the right price, the risk of acquiring less relevant content is offset by the convenience and timed saved in the acquisition process. In an era of increasing interdisciplinary research, ebook collections enable libraries to meet the needs of a wide range of users and help the library to move rapidly to an econtent dominated catalogue that provides users with remote 24/7 access and much easier discovery. Although the reading electronic documents in digital environment are commonly associated with e-book, it would be beneficial to study this concept along with its software and hardware related aspects. From hardware aspect, the tablets were specifically designed and manufactured for reading e-books along with computers (eg. Kindle.) Such devices have many advantages due to their mobility, ability to store a large number of books, and its convenience for reading anytime anywhere. Despite the fact that reading from a screen appears to be disadvantageous at first sight, the counterpart advantages such as mobility, saving physical space, convenience, saving time and money, easeof-use are the primary motivations in preferring e-books (Rosso, 2009). The effect of this transformation from printed material to e-books on our reading habits is also a subject worthy of deeper analysis. Thus, the purpose of this study is to analyze the variables relevant with the e-book reading habits of polytechnic lecturers (the aspects they deem advantageous, related purposes, methods of access, the most frequently used e-book environment and file formats). 3. Research questions a) What are the book reading frequencies of polytechnic lectures and the types of books read by them? b) Is there a significant correlation between book reading frequency of polytechnic lectures and book reading habits of their social environment? c) What are the e-book reading habits of polytechnic lectures? d) Which e-book medium and file formats are used by polytechnic lectures? 4. Significant of Study This study can be as improvement to the library of Malaysian polytechnics to concern on e-book development in enhances the variety technology of reading and the accessibilities of reading material. This study hopes to further propagate the usage of e-book for academic purposes especially amongst lecturers in institutions of higher learning, specifically amongst the students. Equipped with one of the best and modern educational tool, not to mention usually free and easily accessible, lecturers would be able to disseminate all types of information from various sources with only the use of a single computer for all their academic purposes. This would undoubtedly improve not only their works but also their students learning experiences to better prepare them for the world after university. 4-5 March 2014, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA. Organized by WorldConferences.net 591

3 Another significant result this study would hope to achieve is the advancement of higher education institutions in Malaysia in order to be the center of educational excellence as aspired by the government an also as one of the best in the world. Practicing an education system which highly emphasizes the use of e-book; both printed and electronic, would result in high quality academic works amongst its lectures and students, thus not only perpetuating that the level of education system is higher but also better as the others higher education. 5. Literature review According to Cox and Mohammed, as quoted by Lee (2002), an ebook is a term used to describe a text analogous to a book that is in digital form to be displayed on a computer. Lee (2002) also included the definitions of an e-book from the Hi-Tech Dictionary and The New Concise Oxford English Dictionary respectively as a book that has been converted to digital form and could be read on a computer, usually through network services or CD-ROM. E-books could expand over print media by adding several specific features such as hypertext links, search and cross-reference functions and multimedia and an electronic version of a printed book which can be read on a Personal Computer or hand held device designed specifically for this purposes. The technologies available for reading e-books there are two types of technologies available for using e-books either online or Internet-based and offline or specific e-book reader based. In the online version the user can read the text through an Internet browser and this opens up possibilities of linking to other resources, cross-text searching, and utilization of dictionaries. There are several organizations which each offer access to tens of thousands of e-books from a range of different publishers. Examples include Netlibrary ( Ebrary ( and Questia ( In addition many publishers (e.g. Springer and Gale) are now also providing e-access to their published printed books. In the offline version users will read e-books through special e-book reader software, which can be downloaded, from the Internet. Much of this software is format specific, such as Adobe reader in PDF format ( Hiebook reader in HI format ( Microsoft reader in LIT format ( Mobipocket in PRC format ( Palm reader in PDB format ( (Sulli, 2004; Gibbons, 2005). There are many e-book online stores, such as ebookmall ( which offer downloadable e-books in a variety of formats. Previous survey on e-book usage demonstrated low usage such as findings reported by Abdullah and Gibb (2006), Anuradha and Usha (2006), Bennett and Landoni (2005), Ismail and Zainab (2005), and Chu (2003). This was reported by limited range of available e-books, poor design, lack of awareness regarding its availability and lack of widely advertisement of this resource. Early implementation of e-book includes Dynabook and Data Discman before advances in computer science saw Barnes & Noble Nook, Amazon Kindle, Apple ipad and Google ebooks joined the market. Most e-books today are computerized representations of physical books. The content can be as simple as scanned pages to a more lively one, where animation and sounds are incorporated into the pages. Some e-books are also integrated with assessment tools and dedicated learning environments such as the e-book in Malaysia (W.Roslina et. al., 2012) The Malaysian e-book is a based on the Intel Classmate PC (R.Wilson 2003; A.Azza 2011). Some of the content and applications are locally developed which include digital textbooks, dictionary and academic assignment and management system, resembling a Learning Management System. The e- Book is used in traditional classroom teaching (off-line), test administration (on-line), and in smart classrooms. 4-5 March 2014, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA. Organized by WorldConferences.net 592

4 There are numerous research efforts in the field of e-book spanning across disciplines and geographical locations such as Thailand (R. Pruengkarn, 2005), Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia (P. McFarlane2006), Japan and China. In a study, conducted in the Library of the University of Idaho (Sprague, Hunter, 2009), e-book related statistics were dissected by focusing three e-book providers; Ebrary, NetLibrary, and Books Although the highest numbers of titles are available in the fields of Business/Economics, Literature and History, when analyzed from the aspect of usage, it was revealed that the most used e-book catalogues are from the subjects of Computer Science, Psychology and Religion. Fewest amount of use was recorded in the field of political sciences. When the library circulations are analyzed, it is obvious that the results of all three separate studies support each other. 6. Methodology 6.1 Sample and data collection method The study was 60 lecturers Department of Commerce one of the Malaysian Polytechnic, Politeknik Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, (PSA). 53 lecturers Department of Commerce were randomly selected based on the table for determining a sample size (Krejcie and Morgan s 1970). The main research instrument of this study is a questionnaire. It consists of four sections; Part A: Demographic data of respondents, Part B: Book reading habits Part C: E-book reading habits and Part D: The most frequently used e-book medium and file formats, Part B consists of 3 items, Part C consists of 5 items and Part D consists of 2 items all the question adopted from previous studied of E-book versus printed material: Preferences of University Students by C.Gonca et.al., (2013). Part A consists of items to collect personal data of the respondents. Part B, C, and D were using open ended questions. However, it is more appropriate when the number of question does not exceed 15 (Resnick, 2012). 6.2 Data Analysis There are many ways to do an analysis in the research data. Data analysis techniques are the way to analyze the data collection. The techniques of analysis are very important to get the best result. The data s are coded, computed and processed using Qualtrics for the purpose of this study. The Qualtrics is a web-based survey tool. 7. Results Research findings have been analyzed under 3 major headlines: book reading habits, e-book reading habits and the most frequently used e-book medium and file formats. The total of respondents for this survey is 53 lecturers which include PHD is 0%, Master Degree is 60% and Bachelor Degree is 40%. The finding shows two major area of specialization which is Accountancy and Business Marketing. The frequencies for respondents involved are 15 lecturers are specializing in Accountancy and 34 lecturers are specializing in Business Marketing while 4 lecturers are specializing in other area. The type of book which is read the least among lecturer is Psychology-Philosophy types with a ratio of 2%. The Course Book and Novel types are read most commonly by lecturer with a ratio of 36% and 25% respectively. The least frequently selected option that have been chosen by polytechnic lecturer are Poem-Memoir with and I read no books with the rate of 0% respectively. The distribution of book reading frequency shows 68% of polytechnic lecturers read one book in a week. There are 28% of lecturers selected in a month and 1% of ratio respectively for respondents that select in 6 months and longer than a year reading frequency. The result of significant correlation between book reading frequency and book reading habits with their social environment show of P-value is 1.00, known as positive correlation. Respondents that 4-5 March 2014, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA. Organized by WorldConferences.net 593

5 gave the highest rate of reading habit with once a week for reading frequency replied to the question; who has the highest rate of reading habit in social environment as their Friends/ Colleagues with 63.9%, Spouse with 22.2%, Children with 11.1%, and Siblings with 2.8%. Furthermore the second highest rate of reading habit of reading habit with once a month stated that the person who has the highest rate of reading habit in social environment as their Friends/ Colleagues 46.7%, Spouse with 33.3% and Children 20.0%. The distribution of e-book reading shows 83% of polytechnic lecturers are e-book readers, which is a substantial ratio indicating the prevalence of e-book technology while 17% of lecturer chooses the traditional ways in reading books. Polytechnic lecturers read e-books with a ratio of 52% mostly for working on teaching material while 27% used e-books to read story/novel/poetry books. The least e-book objective is used for research purpose with a ratio 20%. The e-book search format achieved 91% through search engines. Furthermore, Social media and Publishers own sites have least of the search format for E-Book with ratio of 7% and 2% respectively while Library have 0% of search format for E-Book. A ratio of 59% E-Book is mostly downloaded from its original source. The least preferred method is online reading with a ratio of 34% while 7% of polytechnic lecturers downloaded and print out E-Book. 8. Discussion According to research findings 83% of polytechnic lecturer s state that they use e-book shows the advantages of mobility, saving physical space, convenience, saving time and money, ease-of-use are the primary motivations in preferring e-books (Rosso, 2009). The next findings of study, polytechnic lecturers read mostly (38%) articles-essay followed by course book (36%) as printed books and as e-books they place teaching material (52%) to the first rank and reading story etc to the second rank (27%). This finding may be bound to the fact that a vast majority of e-book format books are teaching materials. The fact that polytechnic lectures deem easy access of e-book as its biggest advantage is also supportive of the prevalence of e-book format for teaching materials. Although it is contradictory that polytechnic lecturers mostly read on articlesessay and course book type yet the aim of reading e-book is to work on teaching material and this case can be explained with restricted e-book resource in academic courses type. Therefore publishers should consider the publishing of e-book as a requirement in this field. The way they read e-book, 59% of lecturers marked the choice of download and screen reading. This result shows that there is a highly understand the concept of e-book. Another relevance finding underlines that lecturers have regular book reader friends and colleagues which draws attention to the fact that a great majority of lecturers have failed to identify their spouse as the regular book readers. From the perspective of social learning, it is acknowledged that lecturers spend most of their times with spouse and learn through mutual interaction with each other. As consideration, the book reading habits of lecturer s role-models and the factors influential on their book reading frequencies stands before us as a topic that deserves further analysis. Aside from all above mentioned factors, in analyses with respect to area of specialization the quantity of e-book resources in different area should also be taken into account. It is no surprise that use of e-book is scarce in any subject with limited electronic resources. It would be even further beneficial to findings of present research is evaluated with respect to accessible e-book resources on subject area. Considering the increase of e-book literacy, it is observed that recently published books should have an electronic format and the books in hard-copy format should be transformed into e-book format. Moreover, when it is considered that to work on teaching material and reading story books etc are 4-5 March 2014, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA. Organized by WorldConferences.net 594

6 the most important purposes for lecturers reading e-book, it is clear that it has become necessary for academicians to present lecture notes and resources in electronic format for teaching purposes. 9. Conclusion and Future Recommendation As conclusion it seems that, people are moving into e-book revolution. It is accelerate with enhancement of e-learning education Malaysian polytechnic. Moreover, with this findings show amongst the polytechnic lecturers are aware about technology and engage with it. Besides, most of the lecturers know the techniques how to read e-book and familiar with the format of usage and good in computer literacy. This study makes an important contribution in understanding polytechnic lecturers preference towards e-book compare to printed material as guideline to publisher and other resources to focus more into publish of e-book academic material. Future studies could focus on the factors influencing the preferences among lecturers in e-book. Another research area to be considered is the impact of e-book in academic environment. Acknowledgement This paper is purposely to enlighten research culture at polytechnics. References Ingraham, B. and Bradburn, E. (2003), Sit Back and Relax: Issues in Readability and Accessibility for Electronic Books. Retrieved on 26 December Garrod, P. (2003), Ebooks in UK libraries: where are we now?, Ariadne, No. 37. Retrieved on 26 December 2013 at: Rosso, S. (2009). What are ebooks? Advantages and disadvantages of electronic books. Retrieved on 26 December 2013 from Hawkins, D.T Electronic books: a major publishing revolution (part 1), Online, Vol.24, no.4: Goh, Joseph Redefining libraries. Retrieved on 26 December 2013 at present/dublin/ebooks-dublin.ppt. McKnight, Cliff and James Dearnley Electronic book use in a public library. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Vol.35, no.4: Ormes, Sarah An e-book primer. Retrieved on 26 December 2013 at dublin/ebooks-dublin.ppt. Rao, Siriginidi Subba Electronic books: a review and evaluation. Library Hi Tech, Vol.21, no.1: Vidana, Monica E-books in public libraries. Libraries and Information Update. Retrieved on 26 December 2013 at Saurie, Margaret and Kaushik, Sanjay Electronic publishing. IT encyclopedia.com., 2nd rev. ed. New Delhi:Pentagon Press, p March 2014, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA. Organized by WorldConferences.net 595

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