Photo by Hilary Woodward

The District is back on top of a list that ranks 82 U.S. cities in terms of literariness.

Central Connecticut State University’s America’s Most Literate Cities considered the number of book stores, educational attainment, Internet resources, library resources, periodical publishing resources, and newspaper circulation to come up with the 2016 ranking.

D.C. had a four-year streak of topping the list between 2010 and 2013. Minneapolis placed first in 2014 and there wasn’t a study released in 2015. Seattle, Minneapolis, Atlanta, and San Francisco rounded out the top five this year.

But according to Miller, what matters most isn’t ranking consistently on top, “but what communities do to promote the kinds of literacy practices that the data track.”

For the past decade, D.C. Public Library has made several upgrades including modernizing and renovating more than a dozen branches. It also launched a program in which D.C. kids receive one book each month until they turn five years old. And last fall, the system saw a spike in library card applications after running a promotion with now-closed ShopHouse.

The system’s flagship Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library is currently undergoing a transformation that includes new fabrication spaces, expanded areas for special collections, an interactive children’s area (complete with slide), a cafe, auditorium, and a green rooftop.

Meanwhile, the city’s Connect.DC program operates its Mobile Tech Lab to bridge a digital divide across the city.

Still, according to a 2015 Wallethub study, D.C. had the highest educational attainment gap by race among people with a bachelor’s degree or higher. And D.C. Public Schools is currently battling an achievement gap between black and Latino students and their white counterparts, though this wasn’t factored into the study.