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This study sought to find out whether educated Arabs read paper or digital materials; which reading technologies they use; amount of material they read; the place where they read; how much time they spend on reading; when they read; how they reduce distractions; how they motivate themselves to read; how they interact with the text; their reading rituals; and whether there are significant differences in reading habits according to gender, age, area of specialty and educational level. Unsolicited responses to a Twitter survey from 172 male and female adult Arabs with different ages, educational levels and areas of specialty showed that 13.5% use reading technologies, 15% prefer to listen audiobooks, and 71.5% read paper books. 16% read an hour a day; the majority read less than an hour a day and 13% read whenever they can. Some read 10 pages a day; others finish three chapters/articles a week; 14% read before bedtime; 15% listen to audiobooks while driving, working out, walking, cooking, and running errands; 5% read during wait times; 4% read before they start work; 3% read during their break at work; 3% read in the afternoon; 3% read after sunset prayer, and over the weekend. Some carry their Kindle device with them and read anywhere. To reduce distractions, 23% set a specific time for reading; 12% stay away from their smart phones or turn their mobiles to the silent mode; 6% read in a quiet place; 6% use a timer; 3% drink coffee to focus; 2% listen to music; and some use a pencil and paper to take notes and underline. No significant differences were found among respondents in terms of gender, area of specialty, educational level, the type of material read, reading technologies and applications they use, how much time they allocate to reading, where they read, how they reduce distractions, how they motivate themselves to read, their reading rituals and how they interact with the reading material. The study gave recommendations for encouraging the young generation to read in the age of social media and distractions and which technologies help them develop better reading habits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literary reading is under transformation. Digital devices supplement traditional paper books with e-books and audiobooks, and at the same time, ubiquitous digital connection challenges focused reading. Based on a qualitative interview study with adult leisure readers, this article explores how affordances offered by digital technologies influence reading habits. Informants demonstrate how e-books and audiobooks enhance reading experiences, as digital affordances influence the how and the when of literary consumption. Three prominent findings are stated. (1) Readers adapt reading mode to the situation, and experienced readers have developed strategies to maximise the ultimate combination of title, format and reading conditions. (2) Digital reading favours lighter texts. This dimension is more substantial for audiobooks, relating to the wide choice of combining audiobooks with other activities. (3) Being devoted readers motivates people to develop strategies to ensure further reading. These strategies effectively make readers practically and temporally disconnect to immerse in literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of China Pulp & Paper is the property of China Pulp & Paper Magazines Publisher and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The arrival of books by dowry or inheritance into family libraries frequently introduces unexpected evidence of book ownership. Often fragmentary and out of context, these collections are routinely overlooked. This paper examines one such collection, a group of c. 140 books which arrived at Nostell Priory in 1781, part of the inheritance of Louise Sabine d'Hervart (1734–1798), shipped from her childhood home in Vevey, Switzerland. Primarily Germanic, printed between 1550 and 1700, these books chart the reading, interests, and circles of acquaintance of three generations of the Dünz family, an important Brugg dynasty of artists, glass painters, and architects active in the cultural and political life of Bern and its locality. The paper opens with a discussion of some of the methodological challenges facing those working with women's books in private libraries. It then examines the Swiss German books at Nostell, showing how they inform us of the cultural, intellectual, and social lives of members of the Dünz and related families, both male and female. Specifically, these books reveal a culture of book giving and the recording of the exchange of books, but also of close and long-standing relationships between their owners and significant members of the Swiss book trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review is based investigations on the Western Isles, Scotland, by Martin Martin, a notable Scottish Highlander, academic and medical doctor, of the 17th–18th century. His extensive observations of the geography and peoples of these Isles were recorded in his books, "On the Description of the Western Islands of Scotland Circa 1695" and "A Late Voyage to St Kilda". In these books and subsequent papers there were some noteworthy observations on the occurrence (and as he says non-occurrence) of "epidemical" diseases and conditions afflicting the peoples of The Isle of Skye and the Western Isles of Scotland in this period, and these are discussed in this review. Martin also gives details of a wide variety of remedies that were observed or reported by inhabitants around that time. Some of these remedies are interesting for their relevance to the period but others are of doubtful merit. These are reviewed here more for their significance in the understanding of the diseases and conditions of humans and even in some cases animals at that time. Introductions by Charles Withers and R.W. Munro, 11 and re-assessments of the contributions of Martin and colleagues of that time have given insight into the health and condition of peoples of the Western Isles of Scotland(the Occidental) (Martin 1695; Martin 1716). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this review was to examine the effects that audiobook listening and print reading have on comprehension performance and the role that learner characteristics, text features, and contextual factors play in reported outcomes. The review, which included 32 documents, covered elementary, secondary, and college students who processed narrative and expository texts aurally via audiobooks and visually on paper or screen. Analysis showed that the majority of studies were conducted in classrooms where audiobooks were co-presented with printed texts. It was also shown that audiobooks by themselves tended to facilitate comprehension better than print when students were younger (g =.28 to g =.58). For identified populations, such as struggling readers and EFLs, the co-presentation of audiobooks with print proved better for comprehension than print alone (g =.32 to g = 1.67). There was a paucity of studies that directly compared audiobook listening to print reading; targeted older students with no identified learning needs; or focused on exposition. Implications for instructional practice and future research are forwarded, based on the patterns that emerged from this review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study overviews the most recent digital methods used in Slovakia Hungarian dialectology. Slovakia Hungarian dialectology started out by using the most modern digital methods in 2010 at Nitra/Nyitra university, creating regional dialect databases, first for the Žitný ostrov/Csallóköz region and then for the whole Slovakia Hungarian dialect region. Recording and processing data has been carried out with the help of the Bihalbocs software developed by Domokos Vékás and Fruzsina Sára Vargha in Hungary. The present paper first provides an overview of digital methods in dialectology and its results for Hungarian dialects, and then summarizes the results of the Nitra/Nyitra team so far, illustrating the diversity of digitized dialectological data. It discusses the findings of publications reporting on the results of this research, including maps showing the geographical and social distribution of linguistic phenomena and acoustic phonetic analyses of data aligned with sound files. Important output of this research also includes recently published audiobooks of Slovakia Hungarian dialects. The paper outlines further avenues of research based on the most recent findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The e-books industry is mature, and audiobooks are becoming increasingly popular. More and more publishers are coming to realize that audiobooks could be a potential revenue driver and intend to release audiobooks. Considering that there is a certain substitutability between e-books and audiobooks, publishers need to decide how to release a book in its audible version and its e-book version into the market. In this paper, we incorporate the discount factor and the consumers' acceptance level for audiobooks into the consumer utility by dividing consumers into two types, high-value type and low-value type, and construct two different release models: releasing the audiobook and the e-book simultaneously and releasing the audiobook after the e-book. Using an optimization tool, we investigate pricing strategies of a monopolistic publisher under two different release models. By comparing the theoretical results of the two models, we find that when the consumers' patience exceeds a certain threshold, releasing a book in its audible version after its e-book version is better for the publisher, and the publisher should adopt a skimming (refers to decreasing markups over time) pricing strategy for the e-book in this case. Further, the publisher should set a higher price for the audiobook than the e-book, whether or not they release the audiobook after the e-book. In addition, we conduct a numerical analysis to investigate how the discount factor, the percentage of high-value consumers, and the high-value consumers' acceptance level for audiobooks affect the consumer surplus and the social welfare. This study offers publishers some managerial insights into the complex issues involving pricing and release strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maritime transport responsible for as much as 90% of world trade, currently suffers from a shortage of quali-fied officers. The 2010 International Convention on Standards of Training and Watchkeeping (STCW) en-courages the international community to promote employment at sea among young people, especially females. So far, the Cadet Record Book (CRB), based on International Seafarers' Federation (ISF) requirements is the basic and only document confirming obtaining the required qualifications by cadets to become an officer. Due to the continuous progress of technology and the maritime industry demands, the companies are developing their own (more detailed) cadet training systems. Such solutions enable a more detailed approach to training which results in better preparation for future work at sea. In this paper, one such system is presented in detail, which is already in use by one of the company and compares it to present training requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The teacher's record book is a very important document. This record book contains daily lesson plans and annual lesson plans prepared by a teacher according to the approved syllabus. Therefore, a teacher is responsible for preparing, keeping and maintaining his record book in accordance with the requirements and regulations of the law. Accordingly, this paper will analyze the legal position related to the preparation, storage and maintenance of teacher record books in Malaysia. This writing begins by explaining the meaning of a teacher's record book and its importance in the teaching profession. Further, this paper will evaluate the relevant legal provisions on the obligations of a teacher in the aspects of preparation, storage and maintenance of teacher record books. Finally, this paper will analyze the liability that will be imposed on a teacher for not preparing, keeping and maintaining a teacher's record book. To achieve the objectives outlined, this writing uses a qualitative approach with descriptive as well as analytical and critical methods. Content analysis methods are also used in examining relevant laws. This paper finds that teachers have a duty to prepare, keep and maintain teacher record books in accordance with Regulation 8 of the Education (National Curriculum) Regulations 1997. Teachers who violate this Regulation 8 are considered to have committed an offense and may be fined under Regulation 11 (2) Education (National Curriculum) Regulations 1997. The existence of penalties for breaches of this obligation shows the importance of teacher record books. Consequently, this writing suggests that teachers be given knowledge of the duties and liabilities related to teacher record books so that they are not subject to any legal action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the discussion on papers available for publication. Topics include information quality of academic social networking sites exploring the everyday life information seeking behaviour of postgraduate students; showing substantial growth in the circulation of audio-books with genres being crime, science fiction, and fantasy; and focusing on the use of power through information sharing.

An editorial is presented which discusses article on several topics including within the field of information research dealing with different aspects of scientific activity. Topics discussed include small ethnic minority populations in China who are moved to resettlement areas, reading habits of Croatian library users during the Covid-19 pandemic, and six theoretical approaches to information behaviour along with the features and affordances of audiobook apps.

Copyright of Religious Studies / Dini Araştırmalar is the property of Diyanet Isleri Baskanligi Yayinlari and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article talks about the tax rate for books, audio books, radio plays and audio magazines / newspapers. It mentions about the sales tax assessment of different ways of service provision; and German VAT Act (UStG). It mentions that the sources of information through libraries is available; and mentions about the intra-community acquisition and rental of books, and newspapers.

Many early Japanese books record a large amount of information, including historical politics, economics, culture, and so on, which are all valuable legacies. These books are waiting to be reorganized at the moment. However, a large amount of the books are described by Kuzushiji, a type of handwriting cursive script that is no longer in use today and only readable by a few experts. Therefore, researchers are trying to detect and recognise the characters from these books through modern techniques. Unfortunately, the characteristics of the Kuzushiji, such as Connect‐Separate‐characters and Many‐variation, hinder the modern technique assisted re‐organisation. Connect‐Separate‐characters refer to the case of some characters connecting each other or one character being separated into unconnected parts, which makes character detection hard. Many‐variation is one of the typical characteristics of Kuzushiji, defined as the case that the same character has several variations even if they are written by the same person in the same book at the same time, which increases the difficulty of character recognition. In this sense, this paper aims to construct an early Japanese book reorganisation system by combining image processing and deep learning techniques. The experimentation has been done by testing two early Japanese books. In terms of character detection, the final Recall, Precision and F‐value reaches 79.8%, 80.3%, and 80.0%, respectively. The deep learning based character recognition accuracy of Top3 reaches 69.52%, and the highest recognition rate reaches 82.57%, which verifies the effectiveness of our proposal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociologia & Antropologia is the property of Sociologia & Antropologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Acta Zoologica Lilloana is the property of Fundacion Miguel Lillo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Acta Histriae is the property of Historical Society of Southern Primorska of Koper and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As most of my human contact became restricted to the Zoom screen in spring 2020, I discovered a serious limit to my capacity for looking. I also began finding it difficult to read. A ten-month headache taught me to stop taking ibuprofen and learn to manage tensions around my eyes and head as well as to shift roughly half of my reading to screenreaders and audio books. The need to restructure my own practices of seeing refocused my interest in theatre's engagement of the senses at the same time as the COVID-19 pandemic destroyed people's ability to smell, prompted them to hoard toilet paper, and created a U.S. boom in bidet purchases. These personal and cultural developments coincided with revived metaphors of blindness on the pandemic stage. This article begins with a brief discussion of The Blind, an "immersive audio/visual meditation journey" that Here Arts Center produced in 2021, and then centers on Blindness , the "socially distanced sound installation" produced by the Donmar Warehouse in 2020 followed by an international tour. I wonder at the reiteration of blindness as a tragic trope, seemingly unaffected by progress in disability rights, equity, and inclusion. I wonder at the appeal of wielding any contagious illness as metaphor during a global pandemic. My analysis turns particularly upon the relation between blindness and excrement in José Saramago's novel Blindness and the effect of cleansing the theatrical installation of any shit as well as the even more surprising choice to eliminate the voices of the blind characters. A detour through medieval French farces that link blindness and excrement reveals submerged tropes at play in these performative responses to fear of diminished capacity and diminished control—everything that individuals and societies cast out in order to maintain what we call health, whether literal or metaphorical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]