The synergy between eBooks and printed books in Brazil
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-01-2015-0006 |
| Pages | 401-415 |
| Date | 08 June 2015 |
| Published date | 08 June 2015 |
| Author | Thaís Cristina Martino Sehn,Suely Fragoso |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval |
The synergy between eBooks
and printed books in Brazil
Thaís Cristina Martino Sehn and Suely Fragoso
Department of Communication and Information Science,
Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul –UFRGS, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to discuss reading habits in relation to printed books
and eBooks.
Design/methodology/approach –The study was structured in two steps: first, an online survey
was used to trace a general profile of a group of Brazilian readers who had had previous contact with
digital books. Second, a subset of respondents was invited to participate in open-ended interviews.
Interviewees were chosen according to their responses to the profiling questionnaire. All interviews
were semi-structured.
Findings –The results indicate the existence of a synergy between digital and paper books.
The decision between reading one or the other depends on several factors, amongst which the authors
emphasise online accessibility, reading motivation (for work or for leisure), intended modes of use and
appropriation, circumstances of use and emotional factors. Other elements of importance are the
corporeality of the readers and the materiality of the devices used for reading.
Originality/value –The departure point of the study was the perception that, in Brazil, the arrival of
digital books was accompanied by an increase in the sales of printed books. This contradicts the idea
that digital books and printed books are concurrent, and the growth of the eBooks market will
inevitably lead to a decrease in the revenue from printed books. The initial hypothesis was that digital
and printed books could be complementary. Addressing this question required knowledge of readers’
experience with and opinion of printed and digital books. The results of the qualitative study suggest
that the relation between these two types of publication is not one of alternatives, but instead is one of
synergy. Specific aspects of this synergy are highlighted in the paper.
Keywords Internet, Reading, eBook, Printed book
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The idea of digital books dates back at least to the early 1970s, with the University of
Illinois’Project Gutenberg. The central intention of the project was to make electronic
versions of books available in the simplest forms to the largest possible audienc es, free
of charge (Hart, 2010). More than 40 years later, Project Gutenberg is still one of the
most (if not the most) important online libraries, providing access to mor e than 40,000
books in dozens of different languages worldwide. The popularisation of the internet
boosted the growth and internationalisation of the project in the mid-1990s (Lebert,
2008). At the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, the dissemination of
mobile reader devices facilitated reading of digital books, increasing the popularity
of online ebooks. This is related to the dissemination of mobile reader devices, as
a common complaint about digital reading was the lack of mobility, i.e. the user was
bound to the desktop computer (Bolter, 2001). Printed books had the advantage of
Online Information Review
Vol. 39 No. 3, 2015
pp. 401-415
©Emerald Group Publis hing Limited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/OIR-01-2015-0006
Received 13 January 2015
First revision approved
5 March 2015
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
This work presents partial results of a study supported by the Brazilian National Council for
Scientific and Technological Development and the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher
Education Personnel. The authors are also indebted to all respondents, especially those who
participated in the interviews.
401
eBooks and
printed books
in Brazil
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