隨著網際網路的普及，使用者的成長，數位內容產業與科技的發展，使得人們閱讀行為產生很大的變化。從紙本閱讀到網路閱讀，網路上不拘形式、多媒體、超連結特色與數位文本，正逐漸改變了人們幾千年來的閱讀方式，也模糊了傳統上作者、讀者與出版者涇渭分明的角色與出版方式，如何深入瞭解網路閱讀的模式與影響乃成為當代重要的研究議題。文獻中探討有關網路電子出版問題不少，如數位文獻的品質及著作權問題，也有作者認為網路閱讀改變了閱讀的本質，但針對網路讀者的閱讀活動進行相關研究則十分有限。
網路閱讀是指在網路上從事閱讀的活動。本研究中，網路數位文件閱讀，係採廣義之界定方式，指在網路上閱讀任何數位化的文本，包括多媒體、電子書、網頁內容、電子郵件、新聞討論群等不同的形式。
本文就文獻分析與深度訪談來自五所大學六個院系的二十四位大學教師之結果，探討其網路閱讀情境、網路閱讀行為、網路閱讀與媒體特性、以及網路閱讀之影響等四個層面之現象，期對學術成員的網路閱讀現象有更進一步之瞭解。

This paper reports an investigation on the e-reading activities of academic faculty members on the Internet. The empirical data were collected via in-depth interview with 24 individual members from 5 universities in North Taiwan and were analyzed using grounded theory approach. The author explores and discusses the findings based on the major
themes of e-reading activities among the faculty under study, including the diverse reading situations, multiple sources of reading materials, five influential factors of e-readings, and more positive impacts of e-reading. Overall, the faulty members’ e-reading activities are mostly task oriented and are influenced by a small set of factors. The paper concludes that the nature and motivation of reading are not changed much in the digital environment, but the source of reading materials is more diversified. Some technology-enabling reading activities do happen such as ‘forwarding’ emails, and so do the after-reading information processing
behavior.