The Smell of Printed Books: A Qualitative Comparison between Printed and Digital Formats

Ana Alejandra Fuentes  Cuiñas; Vailati Pablo  Augusto

doi:10.29333/ajqr/12053

Ana Alejandra Fuentes Cuiñas ¹ ^* , Vailati Pablo Augusto ²

More Detail

AM J QUALITATIVE RES, Volume 6, Issue 1, pp. 214-225

https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/12053

OPEN ACCESS 1357 Views 1224 Downloads

Download Full Text (PDF)

Abstract

The aim of this study was to understand the reading habits and preferences of digital and printed books. A qualitative research was carried out, which analyzed eighty interviews involving people from four different age segments. Deepening guidelines were used to perform the interviews, and a content analysis was conducted. Dissimilarities were found regarding age segments: younger respondents agreed that the computer is an element used to study, while the main functionality of cell phones is communication. They usually read in both formats but prefer traditional support when reading for pleasure. Older respondents take pleasure in involving their senses with reading: touching and smelling their printed books. These results reinforce previous founds concerning the coexistence and complementarity of the formats.

Keywords: E-books, printed books, reading habits, cell phones, content analysis.

References

Bush, V. (1945). As we may think. Atlantic Monthly.
Classen, C., Howes, D., & Synnott, A. (2002). Aroma: The cultural history of smell. Routledge.
Connell, C., Bayliss, L., & Farmer, W. (2012). Effects of e-book readers and tablet computers on reading comprehension. International Journal of Instructional Media, 39(2), 131-140.
Cordón-García, J. A., & Lopes, C. A. (2012). El libro electrónico: Invarianzas y transformaciones [E-books: Variances and transformations]. El Profesional De La Información, 21(1), 83-90.
Cordón, A. (2016). La lectura en el entorno digital: Nuevas materialidades y prácticas discursivas [Reading in digital environments: New discursive materials and practices], Revista Chilena De Literatura, 94, 15-38.
Costa-Knufinke, J. (2012). Overview of the Spanish e-book market. Publishing Research Quarterly, 28(2), 135-142.
Dirección Nacional de Industrias Culturales. (2013). Encuesta nacional de consumos culturales [National survey of cultural consumption]. http://www.camaradellibro.com.ar/index.php/panorama-editorial/informes
Divya, P., & Haneefa, M. (2018). Digital reading competency of students: A study in universities in Kerala. DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology, 38(2), 88-94.
Eveland, W. P., & Dunwoody, S. (2002). An investigation of elaboration and selective scanning as mediators of learning from the web versus print. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 46(1), 34-53.
Fernández-Ruiz, J. (2009). Lectura de libros y características socioeconómicas y demográficas. México a principios del siglo XXI [Book reading and socioeconomic and demographic characteristics in early 21^st-century Mexico]. Papeles de Población, 15(60), 245-273.
Fuentes Cuiñas, A. A., & Del Valle Moreno M. G. (2017). Ebook vs. printed books in Buenos Aires: The traditional book continues to resist. DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology, 37(3), 199-204.
Greenwood, E. (1973). Metodología de la investigación social [Social research methodology]. Paidós.
Hellman, E. (2010). Libraries, e-books, and competition. Library Journal, 135(13), 22-23.
Hutmacher, F. (2019). Why is there so much more research on vision than on any other sensory modality? Frontiers in Psychology, 2246.
Hyman, J. A., Moser, M. T., & Segala, L. M. (2014). Electronic reading and digital library technologies: Understanding learner expectation and usage intent for mobile learning. Educational Technology Research and Development, 62(1,), 35-52.
Kobayashi, H., & Ogawa, H. (2022). Priming with horizontal reading influences the deployment of visual attention during word processing 1. Japanese Psychological Research, 64(1), 73-81.
Kretzschmar, F., Pleimling, D., Hosemann, J., Füssel, S., Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, I., & Schlesewsky, M. (2013). Subjective impressions do not mirror online reading effort: Concurrent EEG-eye tracking evidence from the reading of books and digital media. PloS one, 8(2), 1-11.
Krippendorff, K. (1980). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology. SAGE Publications.
Low, K. E. (2005). Ruminations on smell as a sociocultural phenomenon. Current Sociology, 53(3), 397-417.
Malhotra, N. K. (2008). Investigación de mercados (5th ed.) [Market research]. Pearson Education.
Mihajlović, I. (2011). ICT and new trends in consumer behavior: New experiential knowledge, opportunities or challenges for intermediaries. International Journal of Trends in Marketing Management, 2.
Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte Español. (2014). Subdirección general de estadística y estudios [General Subdivision of Statistics and Studies]. http://www.mecd.gob.es/servicios-al-ciudadano-mecd/dms/mecd/servicios-al-ciudadano-mecd/estadisticas/cultura/mc/ehc/2014-2015/Encuesta_de_Habitos_y_Practicas_Culturales_2014-2015.pdf
Morales, O., & Espinoza, N. (2003). Lectura y escritura: Coexistencia entre lo impreso y lo electrónico [Reading and writing: Coexistence between print and electronic]. Educere, 7(22), 213–22.
Moya, C., & Gerber, M. M. (2016). La lectura en formatos digitales en el Chile actual: Nuevas prácticas y viejas desigualdades [Reading in digital formats in today’s Chile: New practices and old inequalities]. Revista Chilena De Literatura, 94, 59-77.
Ramaiah, C. K. (2012). E-books: Past, present and future. DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology, 32(2), 79-82.
Rindisbacher, H. J. (1992). The smell of books: A cultural-historical study of olfactory perception in literature. University of Michigan Press.
Romero-Otero, I., Iglesias-Fernandez, E., & Gimenez-Toledo, E. (2013). Use, acceptance and expectations for the e-book in a research library. Bid, 31, 1-10.
Steinar, K. (1996). Interviews: An introduction to qualitative research interviewing. Studentlitteratur.
Yakhshibaevna, R. N., Akhmatovna, N. E., & Erkinovich, K. D. (2022). Reading and reading issues. Middle European Scientific Bulletin, 20, 119-126.
Ziefle, M. (1998). Effects of display resolution on visual performance. Human Factors, 40(4), 554-568.

Citation

Cuiñas, A. A. F., & Augusto, V. P. (2022). The Smell of Printed Books: A Qualitative Comparison between Printed and Digital Formats. American Journal of Qualitative Research, 6(1), 214-225. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/12053

Cuiñas, A. A. F., and Augusto, V. P. (2022). The Smell of Printed Books: A Qualitative Comparison between Printed and Digital Formats. American Journal of Qualitative Research, 6(1), pp. 214-225. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/12053

Cuiñas AAF, Augusto VP. The Smell of Printed Books: A Qualitative Comparison between Printed and Digital Formats. AM J QUALITATIVE RES. 2022;6(1), 214-225. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/12053

Cuiñas, Ana Alejandra Fuentes, and Vailati Pablo Augusto. "The Smell of Printed Books: A Qualitative Comparison between Printed and Digital Formats". American Journal of Qualitative Research 2022 6 no. 1 (2022): 214-225. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/12053

Cuiñas, Ana Alejandra Fuentes et al. "The Smell of Printed Books: A Qualitative Comparison between Printed and Digital Formats". American Journal of Qualitative Research, vol. 6, no. 1, 2022, pp. 214-225. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/12053

Cuiñas AAF, Augusto VP. The Smell of Printed Books: A Qualitative Comparison between Printed and Digital Formats. AM J QUALITATIVE RES. 2022;6(1):214-25. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/12053