C&RL News September 2018 468 Gary Pattillo is reference librarian at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, e-mail: pattillo@ email.unc.edu Citation rates “The share of scientific articles recorded as ‘uncited’ in each year is falling. Web of Science records suggest that fewer than 10 percent of scientific articles are likely to remain uncited. But the true figure is probably even lower, because large numbers of papers that the database records as uncited have actually been cited somewhere by someone. The number of references in papers has steadily risen over time, with papers in the sciences now including more than 40 on average.” Richard Van Noorden, “The Science That’s Never Been Cited,” Nature, December 13, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1038 /d41586-017-08404-0 (retrieved August 7, 2018). Age and musical preferences The year we were born influences the music we prefer. “Childhood influences are stronger for women than for men.” For women, the strongest adult musical preferences set in by age 13. For men, it is age 14. “The most important period for men in forming their adult tastes were the ages thirteen to sixteen. The most important period for women were the ages eleven to fourteen.” Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, “The Songs That Bind,” The New York Times, February 10, 2018, Opinion section, https:// www.nytimes.com/2018/02/10/opinion/sunday/favorite-songs.html (retrieved August 7, 2018). Virtual assistants on campus “The Georgia Institute of Technology, Northeastern University, and Arizona State University last year provided students with (Amazon) Echo Dots . . . voice-activated devices programmed to answer campus-specific questions about meal plans and busi- ness hours for campus buildings.” Critics of these systems call attention to potential problems with the devices, such as invasion of privacy, ethical concerns, and the fact that “their answers aren’t always factually correct. How do they respond when the question is complex or there isn’t a singular answer?” Lindsay Ellis, “Hey, Alexa, Should We Bring Virtual Assistants to Campus? These Colleges Gave Them a Shot,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 2, 2018. https://www.chronicle.com/article/Hey-Alexa-Should-We-Bring/244129 (retrieved August 8, 2018). Barbara Fister, “Alexa: Tell Me How to Succeed in College,” Inside Higher Ed, August 5, 2018,. https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/library-babel-fish/alexa-tell-me-how-succeed-college (retrieved August 8, 2018). School segregation “Racially divided schools are a major and intensifying problem for American educa- tion. The number of segregated schools (defined . . . as those schools where less than 40 percent of students are white), has approximately doubled between 1996 and 2016. In that same span, the percentage of children of color attending such a school rose from 59 to 66 percent. For black students, the percentage in segregated schools rose even faster, from 59 to 71 percent.” Will Stancil, “School Segregation Is Not a Myth,” The Atlantic, March 14, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/education /archive/2018/03/school-segregation-is-not-a-myth/555614 (retrieved August 7, 2018). Characteristics of postsecondary faculty “From fall 1999 to fall 2016, the total number of faculty in degree-granting postsecondary institutions increased by 51 percent (from 1.0 to 1.5 million). The number of full-time faculty increased by 38 percent. In comparison, the number of part-time faculty increased by 74 percent between1999 and 2011, and then decreased by 4 percent between 2011 and 2016. As a result of the faster increase in the number of part-time faculty, the percentage of all faculty who were part time increased from 43 to 47 percent between 1999 and 2016. The percentage of all faculty who were female increased from 41 percent in 1999 to 49 percent in 2016.” “The Condition of Education—Postsecondary Education—Postsecondary Institutions—Characteristics of Postsecondary Faculty,” The Condition of Education, U.S. Department of Education, May 2018, https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe /indicator_csc.asp (retrieved August 7, 2018). mailto:pattillo%40email.unc.edu?subject=Gary%20Pattillo mailto:pattillo%40email.unc.edu?subject=Gary%20Pattillo https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-017-08404-0 https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-017-08404-0 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/10/opinion/sunday/favorite-songs.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/10/opinion/sunday/favorite-songs.html https://www.chronicle.com/article/Hey-Alexa-Should-We-Bring/244129 https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/library-babel-fish/alexa-tell-me-how-succeed-college https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/03/school-segregation-is-not-a-myth/555614 https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/03/school-segregation-is-not-a-myth/555614 https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_csc.asp https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_csc.asp