Some of you may have noticed back in late January that you did not need to log into the site to view YALSA’s Awards and Selected Lists (that is, if you were not already been using the links provided by YALSA which you could bookmark and use to bypass the log-in). We did this because we knew that the ALA/YALSA website gets unusually large amounts of traffic just after the awards and lists are announced at the Midwinter Meeting, and based on information from ALA, we were concerned that the site couldn’t handle the number of log-in requests.
YALSA had originally instituted the website login for one year to:
1. Work towards fulfilling one of the goals of our Strategic Plan, Member Recruitment, by reaching out to perusers of our Awards and Selected Lists.
2. Find out more about list and award viewers in order to learn how to better connect with those interested in that type of content.
3. Tap the fanbase (which extends way, way beyond our membership) of our Selected Lists and Awards to help them step up as advocates for the entire association and the teens we serve in libraries everyday.
Despite tweaks and improvements to the website, we know that it wasn’t easy for many users to access the awards and lists portion of site, via login, in a seamless manner.
Throughout the Spring, the YALSA Executive Committee and Board evaluated the one year project, including the capacity of the ALA/YALSA website to deliver a seamless log-in process and the success of using an email form for non-member access. ‘ The Board found that: