oct07ff.indd


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

Reading books 
A quarter of adults in the United States say they haven’t read a book in the past 
year, according to an Associated Press­Ipsos poll. The typical person claimed 
to have read four books in the last year and, excluding those who had not read 
any books at all, the usual number of books read was seven. The median fi gure 
for books read was nine books for women and five for men. 
Alan Fram, “One in four Americans read no books last year,” The Associated Press, August 21, 2007. www. 
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/21/AR2007082101045.html. August 22, 2007 

Online and offl ine friendships 
A study concludes that most people have an average of 150 people in their 
online social network, with a core of around five close friends. Another study 
confirms those findings, while adding that the actual number of close friends 
“is approximately the same as in the face to face world.” Of all the sites, the 
majority (90 percent) of close friends have been met face to face. “Face to face 
contact is a requirement for intimate friendships,” according to Will Reader of 
Sheffield Hallam University. 
Roger Highfield and Nic Fleming, “Facebook study reveals users ‘trophy friends,’” Telegraph.co.uk, September 10, 2007. 
www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2007/09/10/scisocial110.xml. September 14, 
2007. 

OED update 
The latest update to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) published on Septem­
ber 13, 2007, contains 2,785 entries, bringing the total number of main entries 
in the OED to 261,120. The dictionary’s 590,653 lemmas (roughly, words and 
expressions that are included in the dictionary) are illustrated by 2,845,029 
quotations and represent 709,136 different meanings. 
September 2007 revisions - Quarterly updates - Oxford English Dictionary, September 13, 2007. oed.com/news/updates 
/revisions0709.html. September 14, 2007 

IT use among undergraduates 

unc.edu 

C&RL News October 2007  616 

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

Only 1.6 percent of undergraduate students do not own a computer. Students 
without their own computers reported less overall time spent doing computer 
work and engaging in many Internet activities. These students report, however, the 
same usage patterns as computer owners for the basic activities of e­mail, writing 
documents for class, and gaining access to college Web sites. Almost all students 
engage in e­mail correspondence. About 28 percent engage in blogging. 
Gail Salaway and Judith Borreson Caruso, et al., “The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Tech-
nology, 2007,” September 12, 2007, EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research. connect.educause.edu/library/abstract 
/TheECARStudyofUnderg/45075. September 17, 2007. 

Internet Archive to host NASA space imagery 
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has announced a fi ve­year agree­
ment with the nonprofit organization Internet Archive to scan, archive, and manage 
the agency’s vast collection of photographs, historic film, and video. The imagery will 
be available through the Internet for free to the public, historians, scholars, students, 
and researchers. Under the deal, Internet Archive will digitize, host, and manage still, 
moving, and computer­generated imagery produced by NASA. 
Bob Jacobs and Paul Hickman, “NASA and Internet Archive Team to Digitize Space Imagery,” August 23, 2007. Internet 
Archive. www.archive.org/iathreads/post-view.php?id=144937. September 4, 2007 

www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2007/09/10/scisocial110.xml
http:Telegraph.co.uk