Mpls: We read without moving our lips

[barondave]

Most Literate U.S. Cities: Minneapolis and Seattle

Residents of Minneapolis and Seattle are the most bookish and well-read, according to results from a new survey released today of the most literate American cities.
 
The survey focused on 69 U.S. cities with populations of 250,000 or above. Jack Miller of Central Connecticut State University chose six key indicators to rank literacy. These included newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment and Internet resources.

St. Paul is third.

I suspect a cause and effect between "literate" and "fannish", but I'm not sure in which direction it runs.

Comments

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

(seen via friendsfriends page)

I suspect a cause and effect between "literate" and "fannish", but I'm not sure in which direction it runs.

I would guess it's a feedback loop that can start on either side.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

You may very well be right, but most feedback loops don't emerge out of nowhere. Whence literacy?

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Whence literacy?

It clearly starts with education. Good schools and a good educational environment produce literacy, which, combined with an innate enthusiasm, cultivates fannishness, which feeds back to reading and writing more, etc. However, I've seen it happen that a disconnect develops -- someone stops reading for years, then picks something up that rekindles an enthusiasm (Harry Potter is a very good recent example, for a number of folks), and the cycle begins. That's why I say it can come from either direction.

[chasophonic.livejournal.com]

Makes it all the more embarrassing that Minneapolis couldn't (wouldn't) maintain their own library system.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

True enough, though to be fair Hennepin Country does a lot of that. (Underfunded as well, alas.)

[invader-tak-1.livejournal.com]

What drove me crazy is that they built the Library palace downtown on the broken backs of the community Libraries they either shut down, or shortened the hours of almost to uselessness.

But Minneapolis has always had a "Fuck everything else, as long as our skyline looks modern." attitude.

another measure

[nancymcc.livejournal.com]

Can I claim a statistic for Portland?

"Among U.S. libraries serving fewer than 1 million residents, Multnomah County Library ranks No. 1 in annual circulation of books and other materials..." Here are more library stats (http://multcolib.org/about/libraryfactsheet.html) of interest only to us navel-gazers in Oregon.

And who else has Powells? (well, Chicago, but it's Powell fils).

Re: another measure

[barondave.livejournal.com]

On even yet another hand, I tend to think of Mplstpl as one unit, for many things, so we get to be Herbie-like and come in first and third.