Minneapolis May be Most Literate City, but Cleveland is Tops in Libraries
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 01/03/2008
The annual ranking of America's most literate cities (population of 250,000 and above) has been issued by Central Connecticut State University, and Minneapolis, which ranked second behind Seattle in the two previous rankings, has taken over the top spot. The other Twin City, St. Paul, comes in third, followed by Denver, Washington, St. Louis, San Francisco, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Boston. This study is based on six key indicators of literacy: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment, and Internet resources.The list is rather different, at the graphic below suggests, when just the library resources category is examined. Tops is Cleveland, and two other cities in Ohio make the list: Cincinnati and Toledo. While public library support in Ohio is historically solid, it's not the only criterion. The study used five variables, all keyed to population: number of school media personnel; number of branch libraries; volumes held in the library; library circulation; number of library professional staff.
