factsjuly04.indd


G a r y  P a t t i l l o  

School-age population 
Fourteen U.S. states experienced an increase in their elementary school-age 
population (children between 5 and 13) between 2000 and 2003. This was 
contrary to the national trend where the total of elementary school-age children 
declined by 274,000. Texas (125,000), Florida (88,000) and Arizona (66,000) 
— the latter two, traditionally, thought of as retirement havens — led the way 
in increases. North Carolina (36,000) and Nevada (35,000) followed. 
U.S. Census Bureau. “Census Bureau Estimates Number of Adults, Older People and School-Age Children in States,”  March 
10, 2004. http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/001703.html  August 23, 2004 

Google News sources 
Google searches more than 7,000 sources for its Google News site, but only ten 
sources account for sixty-two percent of the top stories, according to a recent 
study. Reuters and The New York Times were the top two most cited sources. 
Two other heavily-cited sources are Voice of America and Xinhua News Agency, 
government agencies of the United States and the Peoples’ Republic of China, 
each accounting for seven percent of all top stories. 
Vin Crosbie, “Google News Spiders 7,000 Sources, But Uses Only a Few,” E-Media tidbits, August 2, 2004, Poynteronline. 
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=31&aid=69425  and http://www.digitaldeliverance.com/MT/archives/000442. 
html August 25, 2004 

Data permanency 
Shelf lives of some data storage technology: videotape and film, ten years; fl oppy 
disks, ten to thirty years; recordable DVDs and CDs, thirty to one hundred years; 
stone carvings and treated paper, several centuries. 
Tricia Bishop, “As photos fade, texts crumble, U.S. archives tries to save data,” Baltimore Sun, Telegraph section, page 
1A. August 4, 2004 

SAT scores 

lib.unc.edu 

414 / C&RL News July/August 2004 

Gary Pattillo is reference librarian at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, e-mail: pattillo@refstaff. 

The College Board announced that average SAT verbal scores this year rose 
one point to 508, following a three-point verbal score gain last year.  Average 
math scores fell one point from last year to 518, though the overall math trend 
remained positive. Average math scores are up fourteen points compared to 
ten years ago. The number of SAT takers among the high school class of 2004 
rose to an all-time high of 1,419,007. This marks the fourteenth year in a row 
that the total number of exam-takers has risen. 
College Board, “SAT scores hold steady for college-bound seniors,”  http://www.collegeboard.com/press/ar-
ticle/0,3183,37478,00.html August 31, 2004. 

Geography in liberal arts colleges 
Ninety-three percent of liberal arts colleges do not grant degrees in geography, 
according to Mark D. Bjelland, an assistant professor of geography at Gustavus 
Adolphus College. Sixty-six percent of public research/doctoral universities, 
however, offer undergraduate degrees in geography. 
Mark D. Bjelland. “A Place for Geography in the Liberal Arts College?,” The Professional Geographer, Vol 56 No. 3, 
2004 pp. 326-336. 

http:lib.unc.edu
http://www.digitaldeliverance.com/MT/archives/000442
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=31&aid=69425
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/001703.html