The purpose of ‘rapid reading’ is

Rapid reading is the technique of moving the eyes very quickly over a text to locate a particular piece of information — a name, a date, a figure or a specific fact — without reading every word. In reading pedagogy this is the purpose of scanning: you read fast precisely because you are hunting for one specific detail rather than the overall gist or general enjoyment of the passage. Therefore the purpose of rapid reading is to find specific detail. (Skimming, by contrast, is rapid reading for the general idea; extensive/extended reading is leisurely reading for pleasure; and ‘seeking information’ is too broad and applies to almost all reading, so it is not the defining purpose of rapid reading.)