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[de_safran]

I would like to apply for a grant to research how people read from the computer screen.  While research has been done on how people read on paper, I can't find anyone who has done similar work for the computer screen.  I have been unable to find any partners in the institutions that I work for.

I am a librarian and I want to examine the problem from a literacy, publication and preservation point of view.  I need a psychologist interested in the perception and psychological view and a reading specialist for the educational point of view.  At least one of the partners needs to be a full-time faculty member at a research institution.

There is little time for a grant this year, but perhaps I can find partners for a future grant?  Anyone interested?  I live in Chicago, but collaboration could be done on line.

[bibliothecula]

You will find that a number of textbook publishers and others in the e-publishing industries have been doing work on this for quite some time. You might want to look up the white papers on this topic from groups who sell e-readers (Sony, etc) and the major textbook publishers: Pearson, Thomson, McGraw-Hill. I believe that the textbook pubs are also offering some of their data through the Association of American Publishers. Some or the material will be slanted towards e-reading, but some will be less biased.

You might also want to search through journals in literacy, education and book culture. The International Journal on the Book might have something, or you might find contacts through it (and also its conference, the International Conference on the Book, which will be held this year in Spain, I believe).

[psychle]

I have heard (second-hand) about studies comparing reading from paper with reading from a computer screen, so there must be data out there. Bibliothecula provided some good ideas for finding it.

[namazu]

PubMed or similar databases may help you find researchers who are active in this field, although you'd have to choose the search terms carefully.  I had some luck with terms like [reading computer "visual processing"] etc.  A lot of what I came across was either fairly technical neuroscience stuff or occupational health stuff (e.g. eyestrain, fatigue), but some of that may be what you're looking for.

This book might be useful for background and to give you an idea of who was works in this field (ten years ago, anyway):
van Oostendorp, H., and de Mul, S. (Eds.) (1996), Cognitive aspects of electronic text processing. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex. 

Paul Muter at U Toronto, who wrote a chapter of the above book, seems to do work along these lines (possibly part-time) and could probably put you in touch with interested students or colleagues; here's his webpage: http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/~muter/  His publication list is probably a good beginning bibliography, too.

Companies that produce assistive technology for blind and dyslexic people are another potential source of information - the two big companies that come to mind are Kurzweil and Freedom Scientific.  Again, these companies would have a niche focus, but may be able to put you in touch with R&D people who are familiar with the broader literature and could probably give you the "unviersal design" and accessibility perspective.