A Look Back at the ALSC Blog – 2019 in Review

2019. That year is behind us, and now is a great opportunity to take a look back and review some of the highlights of the last year on the ALSC Blog.

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.” We have worked hard to fulfill that mission in the past year!

Let’s start with some numbers about how this played out last year.

• Total Number of users: 178,640
• Total number of sessions: 250,958
• Total number of pageviews: 365,058
• Total number of unique blogposts: 400
• Total number of blogposts by guest contributors: 55
• Total number of comments: 210

It’s interesting to see how technology changes the way the ALSC Blog is viewed. There was a time when most of us used desktop computers almost exclusively to access anything on the Internet. Now over 20% of our users use mobile devices or tablets to read the Blog.

And take a look at this table showing what days and times the Blog saw the most users in the past year. There was no time of the day or night without readers. And 11:00 to Noon on Mondays & 11:00 to 1:00 pm on Tuesday saw the most visitors. Fascinating!

It is always fun to look back at which posts and pages were most popular in the previous year.

Here are the top ten posts of 2019:

1. 2019 YMA Mock Election Results
2. When a Program Fails by Kyra Nay for the School-Age Programs and Services committee
3. 2 Ways to Choose Books for Picky or Uninterested Readers (and get them loving the process) by guest contributor Belinda Moore
4. Storytime Books That Will Make Grownups Laugh by Tori Ann Ogawa for the Early Childhood Programs and Services committee
5. Tiny Triumphs: Using Ukuleles with Success in the Library by guest contributor Mary Amato
6. BIG Play = BIG Fun by Meredith Steiner for the Early Childhood Programs and Services committee
7. Teens and Tweens: Large Print Makes a Difference by Jonathan Dolce
8. The Librarian Listened: Helping Children and Caregivers Handle Mental Health Conditions by Kaitlin Frick
9. Stuffed Animal Sleepovers at the Library by guest contributor Katie Brege
10. Noise Reducing Headphones: Assistive Technology in Youth Services by Renee Grassi

On the ALSC Blog, we love comments and welcome commentary, opinion, and reaction to posts. In 2019, ten posts which generated at least 5 comments were:

1. Let’s do better #alacouncil #alamw19 by Amy Steinbauer (10 comments)
2. When a Program Fails by Kyra Nay for the School-Age Programs and Services committee (8 comments)
3. Library Cards Around the USA  #LibraryLove by Emily Mroczek-Bayci (6 comments)
4. Easy Reader Deep Dive by Amy Steinbauer (6 comments)
5. Storytime Books That Will Make Grownups Laugh by Tori Ann Ogawa for the Early Childhood Programs and Services committee (5 comments)
6. World Breastfeeding Week – Books for Your Library by guest contributor Phoebe Fox (5 comments)
7. Reader’s Advisory Fun by Alyson Feldman-Piltch (5 comments)
8. Interactive Picture Books by Maria Trivisonno (5 comments)
9. Poetry in Action by Paige Bentley-Flannery (5 comments)
10. A Field Guide to the Storytime Blahs by Amy Steinbauer (5 comments)

The ALSC Blog would simply not be possible without the consistency and commitment of our team of ALSC bloggers. Huge thanks go to this group of writers who contribute a post each month. Thanks also to:

• the ALSC committees who share information about their work on the Blog
• the live bloggers who share information in real time about what is going on at relevant conferences
• the ALSC Board and leadership
• the ALSC staff – especially Elly Serrano who is always available to help with questions I might have about the Blog

2019, you just flew by! I’m looking forward to all 2020 has in store.

Mary R Voors
ALSC Blog manager