2016 was a VERY busy year for the ALSC Blog! In looking at the analytics, we saw increases in several key metrics over the course of the year:
- The overall number of sessions increased 7.59%
- The overall number of users increased 6.49%
- The average session duration increased 2.48%
- The number of unique page views increased 7%
- The average time on a page increased 68.66%
These increases would not be possible without the ongoing work of our regular ALSC Bloggers, many ALSC committees, and a large variety of guest bloggers. Their work is IMPRESSIVE! There were 554 unique posts in 2016, or an average of over 46 posts per month. This number includes 90 posts by guest bloggers and 124 posts by live bloggers at national conferences.
It is fascinating to look at the growth of social media use as a method to access the ALSC Blog. In 2016, the use of Facebook as a conduit to find blog posts exploded with a 101.63% increase in number of views via Facebook. It will probably come as no surprise that the two most shared posts on social media were about Pokemon Go: Why Pokemon Go and the Library is the Perfect Partnership and Pokemon Go, Libraries and Media Mentorship, both by Sarah Bean Thompson. Rounding out the top five, the other most shared 2016 posts from Facebook were:
- Because Children Deserve Kindness by Christy Estrovitz of the Public Awareness Committee
- Librarian Defense in Comics by Lisa Nowlain
- ALSC Committee Volunteer Form Now Online by Nina Lindsay
When looking at the most viewed 2016 posts overall, again the Pokemon posts topped the list:
- Why Pokemon Go and the Library is the Perfect Partnership by Sarah Bean Thompson
- Pokemon Go, Libraries and Media Mentorship by Sarah Bean Thompson
- Share Your Thoughts on the Institute and HB2 by Andrew Medlar
- Using Scarves in Storytime by Abby Johnson
- Because Children Deserve Kindness by Christy Estrovitz of the Public Awareness Committee
In celebration of the Youth Media Awards, for the first time last year we offered a compilation of Mock Election results from around the country. We are continuing and expanding this Mock Elections page in 2017 and invite you to share the results from your school, library, or book discussion group.
The mission of the ALSC Blog is to provide a venue for coverage of time sensitive news in children’s librarianship, current issues in the field, and programs, conferences, initiatives, resources, and activities of interest to ALSC members and those interested in children’s librarianship. I would be remiss if I failed to again acknowledge the great work done by our regular ALSC Bloggers in pursuit of this mission. THANK YOU! I also need to offer a huge thank you to Dan Bostrom, the ALSC Staff Liaison to the Blog, who is always there with answers to any questions I might have.
I am excited about the continued growth of the ALSC Blog and look forward to strengthening it in 2017. If you have comments or suggestions for improvement, please let us know! We’re going to continue to grow!
Mary R. Voors/ALSC Blog manager
alscblog@gmail.com