Croatian students’ perception of e-books

Cilj je rada dati, barem djelomično, odgovor na pitanje kako studenti percipiraju e-knjigu vodeći računa o pojavnosti e-knjige s kojom se susreću te kako ju definiraju. Rezultati istraživanja provedenog na studentskoj populaciji pokazuju da se iskustvo e-knjige ispitanih studenata uglavnom odnosi na elektroničke pdfinačice tiskanih knjiga. Uređaji koji se koriste za čitanje uglavnom su računala, u manjoj mjeri tablet-računala, dok se e-čitači gotovo uopće ne koriste. Iskustvo čitanja, odnosno korištenja e-knjige, uvelike utječe na stavove o e-knjizi. Sam pojam e-knjige studenti uglavnom definiraju kao elektroničku inačicu tiskane knjige koja se čita na računalu, što se gotovo u potpunosti poklapa s oblikom e-knjige s kojim se najčešće susreću. U pogledu vrste literature studenti u značajno većoj mjeri u e-obliku čitaju znanstvenu, odnosno stručnu ili ispitnu literaturu nego književnost ili publicistiku. Od ispitanih karakteristika e-knjige ispitani studenti pozitivno ocjenjuju korisnost i praktičnost te dostupnost e-knjige, a negativno doživljaj čitanja.The aim of this paper is to address the question of students’ perception of e-books. The paper discusses the issues of defining e-books and attitudes towards e-books separately. The research conducted by an online questionnaire among student population shows that students mainly deal with pdf versions of printed books. The devices used for reading e-books are mainly desktop computers or laptops, and tablets, but to a lesser degree. Hardly any students own or use e-readers, which influences the way they define e-books. Students mainly consider an e-book to be the electronic version of a printed book that is read on a computer. As for the content, students mostly read scientific literature or exam materials in electronic format. Fiction is almost exclusively read on paper. Given the choice of the type of book students would rather choose paper in both cases, although in case of scientific literature and exam materials they are more open to e-books. The factor analysis was used to analyse the characteristics that students recognize in e-books and the results show three independent factors: Usefulness and practicality, Reading experience and Accessibility. Usefulness and practicality and accessibility were rated positively and the Reading experience was rated negatively. These results are expected considering that students mostly read e-books on computers and not on dedicated reading devices