academic reading

[shootingstar]

I bought a laser printer when I realized I would be printing so many articles. It was expensive, but worth it.
And yes, when I was (briefly) in a doctoral program in the early 80's, I spent at least $20.00 a week xeroxing articles at the library. My children were shocked that I actually had to go to the library and get the articles out of a journal to do this.

What alot of people don't realize is some of the decent full-text journal articles/books cost money to access. Your libray ID card as a taxpayer where you live for your local library or the university library ID card for the local university library that you use, is worth..money. That card is part of your membership/eligibility which your library system buys hundreds or several million $$$ worth of annual licensed access rights to those meaty research databases.

This information is really not "free" for those who don't have your library ID number or those who don't want to walk into the library to use the computer. Some of the libraries control paid database access in this way...they must to honour the publisher's licensing terms.

Doing a google search does not allow one to scour into hundreds of proprietary research databases. This is reality of the information marketplace and of technology itself.

[Grog]

I have printed a lot of articles in my 12-year academic career, and I have kept a lot of them, too. I have returned to my notes sometimes more than half a decade after first making them. I kept everything in alphabetical order. Well, not EVERYTHING. But many articles nonetheless.

I love to go read in a chair away from the computer. I think it's healthier and brings about a different way to think, compared to what happens in my brains when I'm reading online... Not sure it's generational: I've been using computer intensively since the age of 8 or something, but there's nothing like paper.

... and, I would argue that sometimes using paper might be better than getting another electronic gizmo full of heavy metals and plastics that will pollute the earth forever. But I have never seen comparative data on this. But it does give me another excuse for not getting another electronic device...

[Flybye]

I pretty much print out everything that is under 15 pages. The rest I save to my desktop and read at my leisure (hahaha,,,, did I just say that??? I have no leisure).
I figure that my time is worth something and if I can read an article that is printed up and in my hand when I have a little break, I have made good use of the paper.
All in all, I had a little talk with myself and told myself to quit freaking out about paper and ink and just consider it part of the cost of my degree.

[Crankin]

Yep, every article I get is through my university's database membership, or put up on Blackboard as part of the required reading for the syllabus. On the rare occasion that they don't have what I need, I can apply to get it through a consortium of university libraries in Boston that my school belongs to.

[Aquila]

I print out if I'm going to use it for research or teaching. If it's just a quick, "oh, this is interesting," sort of article, I can read on line. But for taking notes, I need to have it on paper. And then I put it in teaching or research files. My file cabinets are massive.

[malkin]

Print.
Read in a comfy chair, in bed, or in the bath.

When I'm done, use the back for scratch paper or birdcage liner.
When that's done, recycle.

Sitting at the computer provides too many opportunities to get off task.