A new study of the nation's "most literate cities" ranks Baltimore #16 for 2008, well behind co-leaders Minneapolis and Seattle. That's not bad, considering the same survey ranked Baltimore 27th in 2007.

The survey, conducted by John W. Miller, the president of Central Connecticut State University, measures six broad factors that reflect literacy. They are: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment, and Internet resources.

I'm surprised that Baltimore jumped so much in the rankings. But Read Street readers deserve at least partial credit. The measurement of Internet resources includes per capita web page views for the major newspaper, and because Read Street launched last May, your readership  helped boost the city's score.