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Reading list systems are widely used in tertiary education as a pedagogical tool and for tracking copyrighted material. This article explores the make-up of reading lists across a whole university. We investigated the experience of academics and librarians when creating reading lists. A mixed-method approach was employed in which we performed a transaction log analysis on reading lists at a single university, from 2016 to 2020. A questionnaire was then answered by both academics and academic liaison librarians about their experience with reading lists. The results of our analysis found that uptake of reading lists varies widely between different academic disciplines. Academic engagement with reading lists was found to show only incremental growth over time, and overall satisfaction by academics with the reading list system was low. We explore implications for reading lists implemented through digital Libraries and recommend developing discipline-specific support to increase reading list numbers and to integrate pedagogical features to increase academic buy-in.

The exponential growth in the use of digital technologies and the availability of mobile software applications (apps) has been well documented over the past decade. Literature on the integration of mobile technology into higher education reveals an increasing focus on how mobile devices are used within the classroom environment, both physical and online, rather than on how mobile applications may be used for either teaching or the research process. Our study surveyed staff and higher degree research students at a New Zealand university using an online questionnaire to gain insight into the use of mobile apps for tertiary teaching and research, seeking information, particularly on which apps were used for which tasks and what obstacles hindered their use. The online survey used 29 questions and ran in 2016/2017. 269 participants completed the survey, nearly 20% of the potential sample. We found that mobile apps were used by academics and students for both teaching and research, primarily in the form of document and data storage and exchange, and communication. Very little app use was recorded for in-class activities (teaching) or in-field activities (research). Apps use resulted from personal motivation rather than institutional planning. Both students and academics reported that institutional support and flexibility would likely provide motivation and lead to increased app use for both research and teaching.

Unanswered questions remain regarding how to design search result pages in library catalogues that offer effective library seeking experiences for users – especially those designed for small screen mobile devices. This paper reports a snapshot interview of the user habits and preferences of tertiary library patrons during book searching and browsing and provides recommendations for library catalogue design and further research.

There remain numerous unanswered questions regarding how to design eReaders that are effective for the range of reading purposes required by readers. This broad research area requires the attention of HCI, design, and reading researchers alike. This paper begins to address the needs of readers when turning pages during reading in a digital book (eBook). Specifically, software-based page-turning features of eReading on a mobile device are investigated. A case study analysis of eReader software and hardware is presented and used to inform the design and testing of six page-turning methods for eReaders. Design recommendations for page-turning are provided.

The shift to electronic books has opened a realm of possibilities for assisting users in reading books, but little of this potential has been realised. Today’s eReaders offer simple search features but rarely make any ongoing supportive data about a book’s content available. We investigated the use of visual aids for eBook reading and developed an eReader prototype. Our prototype provides a timeline of character appearances throughout a book, coupled with interactive identifications and lists of characters as they appear within the narrative. We present results of a user study in which we observe that contextually-relevant information can enhance a reader’s experience.

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) has long-term effects on memory and cognitive functions. This paper discusses the challenges encountered and lessons learned from developing augmented memory aids for people with TBI. In particular, the paper discusses methodologies used to elicit potentially sensitive and personal data.

Technology advancements and availability will result in library catalogues becoming more regularly accessed on small screen mobile devices in coming years with academics and students likely to be amongst the earliest adopters. There remain numerous unanswered questions regarding how to design library catalogues which offer effective library search on mobile devices. This broad research area requires the attention of HCI, design, and reading researchers alike. This paper begins to address the user needs of library patrons when searching for books on a mobile device. Recommendations for mobile library catalogue design and further research is provided.

This paper reports on the results of an online survey about mobile application (app) use for academic purposes, i.e. teaching and research, by Higher Degree Research (HDR) students and academic staff at one of the eight New Zealand universities. Two thirds of the 138 respondents reported they used apps for academic purposes. In teaching, apps were reported to be used as a means to push information to students. In research, apps appeared to be used to self-organise, collaborate with colleagues, store information, and to stay current with research. This paper presents the survey results and discusses implications for personal information management in education context and opportunities for university library services.

Children’s books can vary greatly in the type of and depth of interaction that is required from the reader. The types of interaction demanded by different types of books can be explored using contrasting paradigms. Previously Timpany & Vanderschantz (2012) proposed a categorisation of interactive children’s books that used two continuums that took into consideration Physical Enhancement and Content Sequencing. This paper looks at those categorisations made by Timpany & Vanderschantz (2012) and considers how the multitude of formats addresses either the physical or intellectual aspects of children’s reading and how this then may be used to engage the reader. To do this, a database of 132 books was audited to assess the interactivity of these books against those categorisation systems. The range of books surveyed is discussed in terms of what methods are used to create the interaction within each of the interactivity levels and across types of books. Findings from this audit demonstrate interesting interactions between age, physical enhancement versus content sequencing, and the relationship of these to mechanisms for interactivity such as paper engineering, illustration and story structure. The majority of the books in the sample have no interactive qualities on one of the two-categorisation scales. Physically enhanced books were marginally more highly represented on the scale at higher levels of interactivity. Counter intuitively, the physically interactive pop up books were seen to fall predominantly in lower categories (1 or 2) for physical enhancement, while books requiring image search, an intellectual activity, were also predominantly in the lower categories (1 or 2) for content sequencing.

In the modern world, computers and interactivity are becoming an ever-increasing phenomenon, but this means that the tactile appeal of the printed book is giving way to the increasing popularity of digital interactivity. This research explores how one of the integral concepts of computer interaction, hypertext, can be applied to the medium of print and the advantages that this can bring to the reading environment. The interaction used to read a printed book is different to that of reading material in an electronic form. Books are linear, moving forward, whereas electronic material is laterally associative. However, reading material in an electronic form, such as hypertext, allows the readers to customise and reorder knowledge for their own needs. In comparison, navigation of paper documents is aided by the information being fixed, and readers can easily refer to several documents simultaneously. The considerations that need to be made when combining the benefits of two such contrasting media needs careful attention. Six key design concepts applying hypertext methods to books are discussed to assist the production of effective reading media.

This paper discusses optionsfor tracking academic reading material and introduces a personal digital library solution. We combined and extended the open source projects Zotero and Greenstone such that material can be easily downloaded and ingested into the combined system. Our prototype system has been explored in a small user study.

Even though libraries have been offering eBooks for more than a decade, very little is known about eBook access and consumption in academic library collections. This paper addresses this gap with a log analysis study of eBook access at the library of the University of Waikato. This in-depth analysis covers a period spanning 10 years of eBook use at this university. We draw conclusions about the use of eBooks at this institution and compare the results with other published studies of eBook usage at tertiary institutes.

This paper explores how families select books for leisure reading. We recruited 17 families (adults and children) for this study, and spent time with each in both bookshops and public libraries. Our research aims to add to understanding of how families interact with books and bookshelves in these places, and how digital libraries might best support the shared needs of these inter-generational users. Much of our understanding of how an eBook should look and feel comes from generalizations about books and assumptions about the needs of those individuals who read them. We explore how children and adults search and browse for books together, with specific focus on the type of information seeking tasks that families undertake and on the families’ shared search and browsing strategies. We further explore the implications of this study for the development of digital libraries for children and families.

We report on a study of children and parents shared reading of interactive printed books. We investigated the differences between books with interactive features and books with expressive typography in order to evaluate which features within a book encouraged interaction between the reading participants and the book. 11 parent and child groups took part in the study that involved three observed reading sessions. From our observations we offer suggestions for the development of books and eBooks to encourage shared reading practices.

Technology and our experiences with it are constantly evolving, therefore our views of how media can enhance our experiences with the information it presents to us must also evolve. Designers are able to learn from these "new" digital experiences in order to reinterpret and apply new methods and theories to traditional print based information technologies for the benefit of the user. This research endeavours to develop an enhanced method of presenting and navigating statistical information in a printed medium through the use of interactive methods. The fields of print, hypertext and information visualisation inform the development, with a view to create cognitive awareness in readers, as well as their ability to build information relationships. In both hypertext environments and information visualisations the clarity of context and structure play key roles in the successful presentation of the relationships between aspects of information. Through the process of a Design-Analyse-Refine methodology, a range of designs for unifying these forms of media were explored and analysed. This produced a single design solution where the strengths of print are being interwoven with those of hypertext and data visualisation.

The development and adoption of technology for the classroom is changing the way education is delivered and perceived by students. The availability of Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) technology in New Zealand classrooms is increasing. With this change in technology comes a change in the way educational resource material is presented to students. Significantly, there is a paucity of scholarly research regarding the presentation of typographic information that is efficient and effective for children's' reading and learning on screen. This research assisted in gaining an overview of the types of material and resources being used on IWB in New Zealand classrooms and the quality, readability and legibility of the typographic content of this material. This paper seeks to propose cursory considerations for typographic presentation on IWB as discovered through both interviews with students and the observations of the researcher. This experiment seeks to identify whether typographic factors are being used effectively when displaying text for children's reading on IWB's and to investigate children's preferences and issues with typographic elements.

Digital library research has demonstrated the impact of content presentation on both search and reading behaviours. In this paper, we scrutinise the influence of ebook presentation on user behaviour, focussing on document thumbnails and the first page view. We demonstrate that flaws in presentation increase the volume of short time-span reading, and reduce the likelihood of long-span reading when compared to other documents. This reflects other patterns of information seeking behaviour that demonstrate increased short-term reading when information content is uncertain, and suggests an ineffective use of reader time on less useful content.

Little is known about how readers select books, whether they be print books or ebooks. In this paper we present a study of how people select physical books from academic library shelves. We use the insights gained into book selection behavior to make suggestions for the design of ebook-based digital libraries in order to better facilitate book selection behavior.

Academic libraries have offered ebooks for some time, however little is known about how readers interact with them while making relevance decisions. In this paper we seek to address that gap by analyzing ebook transaction logs for books in a university library.