Daniela Živković

Students’ academic reading format preferences in Croatia

Purpose This research is a part of an international study about the academic reading format preferences among students. The study aims to determine the preferred format among students considering the study materials used for different academic activities. Design/methodology/approach An online questionnaire was used to collect data from the students of the University of Zagreb. The students were approached through official library websites and were asked to answer 24 questions, out of which 16 were Likert-style statements. Findings The research presumes that students still prefer the print format to electronic, but with a slight variation in their choice when it comes to the purposes of reading and length of text. The results are discussed across various variables, e.g. language, number of pages and studying techniques. The variable of academic major was analysed using a chi-square test to check for possible associations with the students’ responses. Conclusions are made about the students’ general format preferences. Research limitations/implications Not all university libraries agreed to participate in the research. Therefore, the student population sample is not evenly distributed across all academic fields. Future research should aim for a more evenly distributed sample. Originality/value As part of an extensive international study, this research gives comparative results across multi-national student populations. The findings can also be used as the basis for further research on academic reading preferences in and outside Croatia.

Digital rights for digitally literate citizens

The aim of this paper is to show that digital literacy should be understood in a much broader sense than is the case now, and that its full achievement is impossible if new digital rights are not introduced in society and understood and accepted by citizens. To prove their presumption that little is known about digital rights even among students, the authors conducted small-scale research among LIS and non-LIS students at two different universities in Croatia - the University of Zagreb and the University of Dubrovnik. On the basis of the findings, the authors concluded that LIS educators and librarians have special responsibilities as regards digital rights: educators should reformulate study programmes and incorporate the topic of digital rights, while librarians should strive to speak for their users and incorporate users’ rights into library legislation.