Me Read Big Book One Day

America’s Most Literate Cities, 2007

The Top Ten

1. Minneapolis, MN
2. Seattle, WA
3. St. Paul, MN
4. Denver, CO
5.Washington, DC
6. St. Louis, MO
7. San Francisco, CA
8. Atlanta, GA
9. Pittsburgh, PA
10. Boston, MA

Drawing from a variety of available data resources, the America’s Most Literate Cities study ranks the 69 largest cities (population 250,000 and above) in the United States. This study focuses on six key indicators of literacy: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment, and Internet resources. The original study was published online in 2003 at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. A link to the 2004 rankings is provided here. The 2005 rankings were published online at Central Connecticut State University and are accessible here. The 2006 rankings are here.

Dr. John W. Miller, president of Central Connecticut State University, is the author of this study. Research for this edition of AMLC was conducted in collaboration with the Center for Public Policy and Social Research at CCSU

I must admit that my heart skipped a beat after reading this. How often have I sworn that I would put down that TV remote and pick up (from a growing stack of books near my bed) what I had lied about reading in conversation with someone. Yes, I know! Reading is for learning, not for impressing.

Then I paused. I considered the population of these cities. Larger cities such as New York, L.A. and my town (Chicago) are not even mentioned. Could it be that the numbers are so low, or where they even gathered? I then thought of how the sources of information were gathered, that is the industries. Data was gathered from Booksellers; Educational attainment; Internet Resources; Library Resources; Newspaper Circulation; and Periodical publications.

OK, most of these are sources which report sales. The only other is educational attainment.

OK say that again?

Methodology:

Selection of Cities for Inclusion Cities were selected based on their 2005 U.S. Census population figures. The study was limited to those cities with a population of 250,000 or larger.

OK

Newspaper Data:

For the newspaper database, the daily and Sunday circulation figures for the March 2006 reporting period from the Publisher’s Statements were obtained from the Audit Bureau of Circulation website (http://www.accessabc.com/).

Internet Data Figures

For the Internet accessibility database were obtained from Intel Corporation’s 3rd Annual "Most Unwired Cities" survey, which ranks the top 100 U.S. cities and regions for the greatest wireless Internet accessibility.


Magazines and Journals

Data Figures for this database were gathered from the web edition of the National Directory of Magazines (2004-2005) for magazines and the Standard Periodical Directory (2005) for journals through the www.MediaFinder.com website of Oxbridge Communications. Only those journals with a total circulation of 500 or more were included, and only those magazines with a total circulation of 2,500 or more were included.

Booksellers and Stores Data

For this database, information was gathered from the U.S. Census Bureau website (http://www.census.gov (2005 population)), as well as Yellow Pages, Inc. (http://www.yellowpagesinc.com (2006)) for information on retail, rare, and used booksellers. Also, the American Booksellers Association site (http://www.bookweb.org (2006)) was used for independent bookseller information.

Educational Attainment Data

For this database, information was gathered from the U.S. Census Bureau’s “American Factfinder” website (http://factfinder.census.gov), specifically from the results of the American Community Survey, 2005.

Political Affiliation and Literacy:

The data on 2004 presidential voter preferences was provided by Jason Alderman of The Bay Area Center for Voting Research in conjunction with the BACVR’s “The Most Conservative and Liberal Cities in the United States” study. According to Alderman, “The goal of this research was to rank America’s most liberal and conservative cities based on the voting returns of the 2004 United States presidential election.


And Finally:

Library Data:

Information regarding library staff per capita, volumes per capita, circulation per capita, and branches per capita were gleaned from National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) database, specifically the “Library Statistics Program” and its “Public Libraries Survey FY2004.”


So why are the most populous cities not in the top 10? Are we too busy to read? Too tired to drag the kids to the library? Are we on line but looking at porn, not reading the Op/Ed page of the New York Times, or downloading e-books at least? Are large numbers of children and poor still lagging behind despite the efforts of No Child Left Behind?


Yet what is the quality of reading materials in the reported "most literate" urban centers? I see people reading. However, is it enough? Shouldn't Mayor Daley of Chicago find this bothersome? After all, the city is pouring millions of tax dollars into the public library system here in Chicago. Are we doing the best we can to market the library then?

I just have so many damn questions about this. It disturbs me that Chicago, New York, and L.A. don't even make the bottom of the top 10 list.

From a related article in the Science Codex I find:

This is the fifth year the study has been conducted, and its author, Central Connecticut State University President Dr. Jack Miller, reports that his research also substantiates recent studies (such as the National Endowment for the Arts’ To Read or Not to Read) indicating that Americans are reading less and reading less well.

In an overview statement, Dr. Miller notes the growing concern for the decline in Americans’ reading habits and abilities. His review of five years of data shows that as Americans have become more educated, they are reading less: newspapers are disappearing and the numbers for bookstores per capita are decreasing. Yet there are bright spots in this disturbing trend: magazines have proliferated broadly, online reading has increased substantially, and libraries are holding their own.

Dr. Miller’s sources include U.S. Census data, audited newspaper circulation rates, and information on magazine publishing, educational attainment levels, library resources, and booksellers. The information is compared against population rates in each city to develop a per capita profile of the city’s long-term literacy practices and resources.

Yes, I am glad that libraries are stable, but the fact of quality and quantity is disturbing. This is very upsetting. Its a steady decline. Despite efforts are we losing the battle?

And what is the correlation between education levels and reading less? Shouldn't that be the opposite? And what is that saying about our education system? See more questions. By my reasoning, limited I confess, it would mean more reading if folks were more educated.

Could there be a misreading of the stats here?

Any thoughts?



http://www.ccsu.edu/AMLC07/Default.htm

http://www.ccsu.edu/AMLC06/Methodology.htm

http://www.sciencecodex.com/list_most_literate_cities_in_america