Also, the first day you mentioned this on twitter, I did fill out the non-member form in part to see if it saved the information or if I would have to enter it over and over again. I however quite deliberately used what I think of as my spam e-mail account – the one I don’t check very often and use when I sign up for something retail related that will send me coupons and advertisements. I did check it the other day and don’t seem to have received anything yet from YALSA, but I would never put my what I think of as my “real” or professional e-mail accounts on a form like this.

Jen, good points about when a library would link to a site that requires this type of form to get information. For the link, are you primarily sending adults (ie other librarians, teachers) via the website? Or is this more for the benefit of teens, and so it would be teens filling out the form?

I have to respectfully disagree with Pam Spencer Holley- it’s not a question of having to log in, I have no problem with that (though I would greatly prefer if ALA’s website had a remember your login feature like all the other websites that I use and have to log in frequently do) It is not being thrown by change… my problem is that it takes a ridiculously long time to access the information. If YALSA wants to drive people away, there is not better way that that. I used to link to the nominations on my library’s website- I will not do that anymore. It is too frustrating for me to find the information- I will not put that experience onto my patrons. There are other ways to find out what titles have been nominated- and other ways to find out the award winners that require much less hoop jumping.

Pam, “ALA web quirk” — I know, I know, it’s a well established fact but still, so so annoying that it’s this way for an organization (ALA) that should be a leader in website usability. I wish that if YALSA was going to do this (and my question remains on why all lists/awards), why couldn’t ALA have it so that this could all be worked out in beta behind the scenes? It’s so, so easy to lose someone from a bad customer website experience. And for the bit about change: absolutely true, change can be a problem because things are no longer the same. Which is why in my Dream World, changes are explained and walked through before they are made (a blog post? an email?) to soften the change and explain the new procedure, so at that point the sole issue is “dealing with change” rather than “wait, what is going on? is this a mistake? am i at the right place? etc tec”

Like you, at first I was a little nonplussed about the login, but decided it’s no different than many other sites that require a login. Think about NetGalley – in return for a great copy of a book, if the publisher okays the request, I just need to login. Let’s be positive and look at the lists and awards the same way…in exchange for my login, I get some great info. Although there is one more step involved for YALSA nonmembers, they do still have access. We just get so used to accessing information in one way, that any change throws us at first. You’ll be fine.

I’m not opposed to the purpose behind this change but I do think it means I’ll be unlikely to use the YALSA website as a source for (maybe) the one piece of YALSA information that readers want most.