scan print books in their collections. According to The Economist[1], “Amazon now
sells more copies of e-books than paper books. The drift to digits will speed up as
bookshops close. Borders, once a retail behemoth, is liquidating all of its American
stores.” Electronic resources at libraries are increasingly popular. For example, the
number of usage of electronic resources at the Peking University Library has tripled,
from about 10 millions times in 2006 to 30 million times in 2011[2].
Cull[3] stresses: “Since readers are very familiar with reading — we do it every
day in many aspects of our lives — it is often taken for granted. It is easy to forget
how crucial reading continues to be to the formation and communication of human
knowledge. It is central to the operation of modern society. However, because reading
is so important, a seemingly small change is likely to have profound ramifications.
Far from a small development, online digital text represents a revolution in
human learning and communication that we are only beginning to understand.” This
paper begins by introducing the background in digital reading, then outlines major
research findings. Implications and future research directions are also discussed.