We took a little detour from working on the Opportunities Exchange for ALA Connect (more on that soon) to implement a statistical reporting module in order to better track activity on the site. Sure, we’d already installed Google Analytics, but the number of hits and visitors doesn’t tell us how the site is being used and by whom.
Now, however, we have a whole range of new numbers to play with, including:
Because the reports run in real-time and can take up server resources to generate, only ALA staff can view them. However, we’ll post regular reports here (does quarterly sound good?) and post screenshots to Flickr. I’m in the process of writing up the six-month evaluation of Connect, which I’ll also post here soon.
In summary, I’m happy to say that Connect is meeting its goals overall, and that growth continues to increase in most categories, although there’s definitely a cyclical pattern to it. This isn’t surprising given the fact that phase one of the project was focused more on committees and working groups, but we hope the new reporting module will help us track changes in that pattern as we move into phase two additions aimed at a wider group of members.
Here are a few screenshots from the new reporting module, but you can view the full set on the ALA Staff Flickr account.
Summary of types of participants in ALA Connect
Activity in ALA Connect by type and month
Active users in ALA Connect by division
Active groups in ALA Connect (previous month – November 2009)
Tags: ala connect, statistics