The end of summer always makes me want to take a look backward and a look forward. The new school year is starting and children’s librarians are preparing for a totally changed traffic flow with a different range of programming and book requests. But as we look to the future, we also want to look back at what we have accomplished, the number of kids signed up for summer reading, the types of summer programs which were most successful, and which genres of books were most requested.
It is in this spirit that I offer our biannual ALSC Blog report for January through July of this year. We have had a busy year!
Since January, the statistics show dramatic increases in visits to the ALSC Blog when compared to the same time period in 2012:
Unique Visitors
29.75% increase
86,068 vs 66,333
Pageviews
37.04% increase
190,754 vs 139,196
Special thanks go to our team of regular ALSC Bloggers, as well as to the many guest bloggers and live bloggers, who have been VERY busy since January.
| Total Posts | Total Guest Contributors | Total Live Blogging Posts from Conferences | |
| Jan-13 | 58 | 4 | 29 |
| Feb-13 | 35 | 5 | |
| Mar-13 | 37 | 5 | |
| Apr-13 | 33 | 2 | |
| May-13 | 39 | 9 | |
| Jun-13 | 61 | 7 | 23 |
| Jul-13 | 40 | 5 | 6 |
| Totals: | 303 | 37 | 58 |
Top posts published since January:
- Where to Download Classic Children’s Books for Free by Guest Blogger, Maria L. Hughes
- Upcoming Adaptation: Disney’s Frozen by
- Notable Children’s Books — 2013 Discussion List by Mary Voors
- Anti-Gay Books and Your Library by the ALSC Intellectual Freedom committee
- Top Titles for Tweens 2013 by Sarah Stippich of ALSC’s School-Age Programs and Services Committee
- Using Evernote for a Storytime Archive by Melissa Depper of the ALSC Children and Technology Committee
- Color Science: A STEM Program for Preschoolers by Amy Koester
- Notable Children’s Books Nominees — Summer 2013 by Mary Voors
- Meet Me On the Red Carpet at #ALA13 by Mary Voors
- Lego Day at the Library by Abby Johnson
We love healthy discussions through the use of the comments on the blog! Here are the posts which received the most comments since January:
- Anti-Gay Books and Your Library by the ALSC Intellectual Freedom committee (43 comments)
- Using Evernote for a Storytime Archive by the ALSC Children and Technology committee (25 comments)
- Emergency Kit for… The Wiggles! by guest contributor, Kathleen (Katie) Lawson. (20 comments)
- To plug or unplug by Angela Reynolds (19 comments)
- Google Reader is dead — Long live RSS by Lisa Taylor (16 comments)
- An Interview with Temple Grandin by Mary Voors (13 comments)
- The Screen Free Storytime is the Best Storytime by guest contributor, Kathy Kleckner (12 comments)
- Process and Product Art in Storytime by Katie Salo (11 comments)
- A three-way tie!
- A 75th Anniversary Toast to the Caldecott Medal by the Caldecott 75th Anniversary committee (10 comments)
- Listen Up! by Abby Johnson (10 comments)
- About Apps and Autism by the Library Services to Special Population Children and their Caregivers committee (10 comments)
The majority of visitors to the the ALSC Blog (74%) were from the United States, but in the period of time from January through July of this year, we also had visitors from 166 other countries. All fifty states and Washington, D.C. showed visitors to the blog with the most U.S. visitors checking in from California, Illinois, New York, Ohio, and Texas.
With the help and support of ALSC Staff including Laura Schulte-Cooper (Program Officer, Communications), Dan Rude (Marketing Specialist, Membership), and Aimee Strittmatter (Executive Director) as well as ALSC Presidents Carolyn Brodie (2012-2013) and Starr LaTronica (2013-2014), the ALSC Blog completed several important projects since January:
- Continued monthly committee posts from a variety of ALSC Committees and linked these posts to each of the committees’ roster pages and to the ALSC Professional Tools page under the headings “Advocacy,” “Intellectual Freedom,” “School-Age Programs and Services,” “Service to Special Population Children,” and “Technology.”
- Developed Guest Blogger Guidelines
- Offered the first (annual?) ALSC Blog Header Design Contest
It’s been a great year so far — I can’t wait to see what the rest of 2013 has in store!
If you have 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.