Three weeks ago, we asked ALSC blog readers to participate in a ten question survey about the blog. We wanted to know how the blog was viewed and ways we could improve. Below are the results of that survey.
What topics would you like to see on the ALSC Blog?
| Anything that relates to programming for middle grade kids would be great! |
| Dealing with tough situations; difficult parent patrons, homelessness, child abuse, unattended children, etc. (many situations you would face in an urban library) |
| special needs storytime ideas |
| storytimes; programs for school-age children |
| More program ideas – I like those |
| programming ideas |
| Programming, Programming, Programming!!!! |
| I love seeing program ideas and would especially like to see passive programming ideas. Also- displays! Love to see unusual and interesting ones. |
| More storytime book & activity suggestions! Especially for 1-3 year olds! |
| Displays that appeal to children, storytime ideas, outreach ideas. |
| Unique programming and doing standard programming better. |
| I enjoy seeing ways to “expand” books not only with activities but with concepts that will reach beyond the immediate program session. For example, planting seeds could result in a butterfly garden and a summer of watching the butterflies arrive, finding caterpillars, hatching them, reading books about all these as time goes by. So, programs that have more than an hour’s value are fun to learn about, read about, especially if there are helpful hints and ideas or advice for success. |
| Highlight different ways to be an advocate for libraries and books. |
| Really like the content just want more of it. Especially spotlights on what other libraries are doing I think it is good as a way to seek out new ideas and stay on top of library trends and ideas to support children. |
| More of the same |
| Approaching information literacy instruction in public libraries.Reaching tween library users.Using social media to reach children and parents. |
| I enjoy the book lists and program ideas. |
| Using technology with kids; more on research |
| homeschoolers |
| special program ideas, working with specific age groups, reviews of professional development books, etc. |
| I love the programming ideas. I think more book recommendations or book specific programming would be fun. |
| Sometimes it seems like ALSC overlooks school age children. Story time and early literacy is great and all, but there are other age groups we serve. |
| love the programming ideas |
| Early Literacy, programming, collection development, personal development |
| Practical programming ideas, pictures of children’s spaces, ideas for using books in programs (favorite readalouds, art activities that pair well with certain books, etc.). This type of content has increased on the blog lately and I love it!! |
| I’ve only been reading it for a few weeks, and I like the variety of what you’re covering. I especially like anything to do with storytimes, displays, and ways of serving kids and their grown-ups when they visit us. |
| I miss the storytime suggestion lists. |
| More professional discussions; the blog is a great source for professional development and programming, but I would love to see more posts on the space that children’s libs occupy in the larger IS field. Advocating for children’s services, discussions of relevant interdisciplinary research, professional standards, that kind of thing. |
| more programming ideas |
| How to help parents at the library |
| Early literacy skills, technology, story time ideas, program ideas, book or topic highlights |
| I always love to see programming & craft ideas. |
| Ideas on programming for little or no money, how youth services deals with budget cuts |
| I would like to see more program ideas for school-age library patrons. |
| Technology & apps |
| I especially appreciate the “how I run my youth services good” posts in the last few months. NOTHING is more boring than all association stuff all the time. To continue to attract non-members to the site (and ALSC membership) this is key. Mary Voors has presided over a blossoming of the site (I’m sure along with office staff). Keep up the great work on this track. Marge L-W |
| more of the same |
| Subject requests…what are young readers looking for at different libraries? |
| I enjoy the success stories; the ones that say “this worked for us.” |
What do you like most about the ALSC Blog?
| Anything that relates to programming. |
| I like the range of topics and the different voices. |
| The range of topics |
| Stealing ideas from other librarians to use at my library. |
| FYI – I read the blog through my RSS readers, so I actually am not familiar with the site design. I like the content about program ideas most. |
| subjects are interesting, to the point, a variety of voices |
| Ability to hear what others are doing in their libraries. |
| There are always fantastic ideas in the blogs. I find it very inspiring to visit and look for new ideas. |
| Up-to-date topics, examples of things libraries are doing. |
| Good programming idea |
| there are a lot of different perspectives/people writing posts. |
| The variety of topics. |
| the variety of bloggers |
| Diverse range of topics and information |
| The variety |
| Sharing ideas about programs and books for children and families. |
| I really like the book lists/reader’s advisory and the program articles. |
| Lots of different sorts of posts; lots of viewpoints; lots of contributors |
| I love getting great program ideas. I really like that there are a variety of contributors, as well as a variety of topics covered. They aren’t all helpful to me, of course, but often even one that doesn’t seem to apply to my library will make me think of other ways to apply the idea. |
| hearing about innovative ideas other librarians are implementing at their libraries. |
| The different perspectives that the guest bloggers offer. |
| Ideas! |
| I like the posts about specific programs that children’s librarians are doing. |
| Ideas and insights from all areas of children’s work! |
| Info from what has worked for other librarians as well as new trends. |
| Many different librarians contributing what is working in their libraries. Tried and true stuff. I read it through Google Reader, I don’t go to your site. |
| like full post in reader, like ideas (mirror, flannel boards, etc) |
| Timely topics and great ideas |
| Blog entries about preschool storytimes |
| I love getting to know the regular posters (I *am* a regular poster, so I like getting to know the OTHER regular posters). Also, I love getting program ideas and seeing pictures of people’s programs, displays, and children’s areas. Very inspiring!! |
| I like the new ideas. |
| different ideas from different areas of the country. The fact that various points of view and experiences are shared. |
| I love the guest posts from librarians across the United States– not only is the programming excellent, it exposes me (as a new librarian) to new library systems, and creative ideas that can easily be incorporated as I build my own portfolio to best serve my young patrons. |
| variety of content |
| All the information |
| The variety of material it presents related to children’s services — programming and display ideas, professional development info, book recommendations, etc. Also, I enjoy that there is a wide range of different voices contributing; it’s very helpful to see what people all over the country are doing because everyone has great ideas and their own strengths. |
| learning about new books & ways to use them |
| Guest contributing |
| I like the wide variety of bloggers and ideas. |
| Practical tips, best practices. Focus on public librarianship. School libraries have lots of outlets, not any for public librarians |
| Coverage of special needs issues, ideas about programming, coverage of conferences if I cannot attend |
| See above |
| the variety |
| Variety of perspectives and topics. |
| You guys do a great job. |
| Range of topics – covers many areas |
| Real-life experiences, on-topic content. |
What changes would improve the ALSC Blog?
| This might be more of an issue with Facebook, but it seems like the ALSC blog feed tends to update all at once, and with the glut of new posts I often miss something awesome (unless I remember to check the actual blog, but somedays are just too busy for Facebook and hitting my favorite blogs). If there was a way to space out the FB posts so they updated several times a day, several hours apart, that would be fantastic! |
| Nothing. Keep it up. |
| Ways to look at entries by topic- such as book reviews, displays, storytime, news, etc. |
| a lot of times I’ve noticed that the author is not named anywhere on the post. I’d really like to know who wrote each post, their job and library. |
| No suggestions at this time. |
| seems a little cramped. maybe spread it out a bit? Possibly use smaller pics for books? |
| Visually it is unappealing to me, and seems somewhat outdated. |
| This isn’t particularly blog relevant, but I have had trouble signing up for the excellent looking online courses the blog mentions. Maybe specify a little more clearly whether or not an ALA or ALSC membership is required and how to sign up if you don’t have a membership (because you’re from out of the country). |
| ? |
| More for school age children. |
| I think the blog’s improved quite a bit over the past year or so… |
| Please fewer posts about working with special needs children. Right now too many libraries are struggling just to maintain regular programming. |
| I feel the blog does a great job already, but to make it an even greater resource, I would love if maybe other pages and resources were added: sort of a one-stop spot for excellent websites, awards, competencies, programming ideas, etc… all linked from the ALSC blog as a sort of portal for best practice. |
| Nothing on your end, but there rarely seems to be the amount of comments on interesting posts I would have loved to see a lot of comments on that I think there should be. Do people not like to comment? |
| Nothing coming to mind at the moment. |
| It could be helpful if program ideas posts were also labeled according to age group. |
| It is now my must read blog on my feeds for Youth Services stuff – a pretty big change from when I used to just delete most entries. Book reviews are well covered elsewhere in the blogosphere so PLEASE don’t go down that road. There are so few blogs that create this opportunity to share best practices and incubate ideas for great service (mirrors at check-out desk; program extravaganzas, floor-etry – and that’s just THIS week), that I hope the blog continues in this direction. |
| Wouldn’t change a thing. |
| More vigorous copy editing would be a nice addition – typos are embarrassingly frequent. |
Do you have other suggestions/comments to help us improve the ALSC blog?
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Thank you all for your responses. If you have additional comments or suggestions, or if you’d like to write a guest post for the ALSC Blog, please contact Mary Voors, ALSC Blog manager, at alscblog@gmail.com.