Reading practices in electronic media

This work discusses the relation among university book, reader and technologies, with the aim of identify how students perceive the reading possibilities fostered by the electronic book. It seeks to understand this reader's practices towards the new book format, initially analyzing a theoretical reference, to ground the empirical survey. It submits a questionnaire to a group of students, trying to identify characteristics such as reading frequency and time spent in reading; reading practices, according to medium, device, genre and accessibility. It notes that the reading is performed by the majority of students in the computer screen, or rather after printing its contents on paper, which corroborates statements gathered from the literature. As for e-book reading devices, most students does not know them, and those who know have never purchased one. Concerning the time spent in reading, it ratifies what has been verified in other researches on this practice, that is, the student spends little time in reading, an average of 6.5 hours per week among master degree students, and 3.67 among undergraduates, in an index that points out to every kind of reading and medium, both on paper or electronic. It concludes that although it is still not frequently used and is even disregarded, the electronic book is an object of evident expectancies of improvement, while the publisher companies innovate and develop services and products that are compatible with the evolution in this field, trying to supply the demand for alternative publishing formats.