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There is a growing focus in Australian university libraries on digital literacy with a number of universities developing digital literacy frameworks and digital literacy programmes for students and staff. The Council of Australian University Library (CAUL) has developed a Digital Dexterity Framework that outlines the skills and capabilities that students will need to succeed in the workforce. In 2019 Edith Cowan University (ECU) Library made the strategic decision to develop a digital literacy framework after extensive benchmarking and environmental scanning on current digital literacy initiatives in university libraries around Australia. Extensive consultation on the framework was undertaken during the development of the framework, with consistent feedback indicating that students need digital literacy skills in order to participate in the workplace of the future. The ECU Digital Literacy Framework outlines the strategies and actions that will be implemented in order to equip students at ECU with digital literacy skills. Future initiatives include a collaboration between the Centre for Learning and Teaching (CLT) and the Library Services Centre to embed digital literacy skills into the curriculum, utilising a Library staff digital capability survey to develop training programmes for staff and the development of a study essential module that includes digital literacy elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents findings from an Australian survey that provides an analysis of the reasons why university students prefer to read print or digital course materials. This survey was undertaken as part of the Academic Reading Format International Study (ARFIS), which is investigating print versus digital reading preferences in 31 countries (Mizrachi et al., 2018). A total of 582 students completed the survey with 471 students providing comments. This article provides an in-depth analysis of the comments from the survey. The comments provided in this survey provide rich data on the reasons why students prefer reading in print or electronic formats, an area of importance due to the increasing prevalence of digital only collections in university libraries. Based on comments, students preferred print due to reasons such as accessibility, eyestrain, tactile features, better focus and ability to highlight and take notes. Although students prefer print, they acknowledge the convenience and cheaper costs of e-texts. Students who were e-preferring were influenced by issues such as cost, environment and convenience. In light of library collections prioritising digital content, tertiary institutions and libraries should carefully consider the role that print textbooks and collections, as well as printing services, may play in supporting student learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]