For the second year in a row, El Paso (TX) ended up near the bottom of a list ranking literarcy in 79 of the largest cities in the US. Twenty-two variables including education, newspaper circulation rates; library resources; magazine and journal publishers; and other public documents. While Mayor Joe Wardy questioned the accuracy of the study, given El Paso’s border status, he acknowleged that the city need to work on literarcy.
Carol Brey-Casiano, director of the El Paso Public Library and President of the American Library Association also commented:
“As a community, we have to make the commitment that we’re going to continue to support libraries,” Brey-Casiano said. “We’re probably one of the number one tools you have in your tool kit to address these literacy issues.”
More from the El Paso Times.
Industrial cities support libraries
The old industrial cities support their libraries, according to the analysis in USA Today, based on the same study. Columbus was 5th in library support, but 11th in literacy rank. The web site is http://www.uww.edu/npa/cities [link was busy when I checked]
“literarcy”
I don’t think El Paso is the only one with literacy problems given that this term was misspelled twice in the same paragraph! Spellcheck, spellcheck, spellcheck!!!