A Look Back at the YSS Blog in 2021

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It's fun to look back over the last year and check out how the blog has been used by our readers. What did we find?

The YSS blog writers shared 325 posts with readers during 2021. Overall the blog had over 96,000 views over the same time period.  Readers come primarily from WI but we also have readers from around the country as well as on other continents.

We post 5-7 times weekly with an average of 30 views per post within a week of publication. After that week, many of the posts are accessed again and again as people search for content relevant to their needs. Often, we will share posts on social media with the larger national library community or our posts are shared by others through system newsletters/communications. This results in a much higher number of views of posts - not just for this year's content but from previous years' posts!

The post with the most views in 2021 is once again Story Time or Storytime? which was written way back in 2014. This short post provides no answers but that hasn't stopped viewers from making this the top post for many years on end!

The next 5 top posts in order of views this year:

Responding to Surprised Dr. Seuss Fans 3/3/21

Grab & Go Activity Kit Ideas  5/5/20

CCBC- Race and Racism: Selected Books for Children and Teens 6/19/20

Racist Imagery and Dr. Seuss  3/5/21 

“How to Do a Virtual Storytime" Webinars”  4/13/20

This year, our bloggers were: Marge Loch-Wouters (Mondays and some Fridays); Katherine Schoofs (Tuesdays); Kim Niesing (Wednesdays); our rotating Thursday bloggers - Ashley Borman, Susie Menk, Brooke Newbery and Taylor Wilcox and her YA librarian colleagues and Sarah Cournoyer (Fridays). Both Sarah and Brooke stepped down this year. We thank all of these dedicated writers and resource sharers! Without them, we would not have the vital, rich content WI youth folks and folks across the nation have come to find.

If you would like to contribute to the blog, we'd love to have you! We have one weekly slot (Friday) available and one monthly slot (4th Thursdays). Of course, if you would ever like to write any one-shot content (an opinion piece; how-to; spotlight on great library service; upcoming event of interest to youth folks state-wide), we'd love to have you too. Plus we're always looking for links of interest to share with youth library folks. Simply email Marge at lochwouters@gmail.com and you can join the fun.

Thanks for reading this year and see you in 2022!