Implementing new knowledge environments: building upon research foundations to understand books and reading in the digital age

Abstract

In this paper, we present an overview of the first year work and plans for the second year work of the INKE (Implementing New Knowledge Environments) research group, a large international, interdisciplinary research team studying reading and texts, both digital and printed. The INKE team is comprised of researchers and stakeholders at the forefronts of fields relating to textual studies, user experience, interface design, and information management. We aim to contribute to the development of new digital information and knowledge environments that build on past textual practices. We discuss our research questions, methods, aims and research objectives, the rationale behind our work and its expected significance - specifically as it pertains to our first year goals of laying a research foundation for this endeavour - and the concrete steps to be undertaken in our second year of the project.