Reaching and Engaging Users
Michelle Rago
Product Manager, World Digital Library
Library of Congress
mrag@loc.gov
www.twitter.com/WDLorg
www.wdl.org
Outline
• Key metrics for 2012
• Describe methods we are using to reach and
engage users now
• Describe efforts we plan to launch in 2013
Key metrics for 2012
Key metrics for 2012
• Over 4.2 million visits
• Over 21 million page views
• Overall traffic numbers are lower for 2012 as
compared to 2011. Mainly due to spikes caused
by television coverage.
• Traffic to the Arabic site increased 70+%
• Visits from iPads increased 480+%
Top countries in 2012
Spain: 16.7%
Mexico: 13.3%
United States: 12.6%
Brazil: 10%
Argentina: 4.8%
Colombia: 3.9%
Portugal: 3.5%
France: 3.3%
China: 3.2%
Russian Federation: 3.1%
Chile: 1.3%
Peru: 1.3%
Canada: 1.2%
Venezuela: 1%
Ukraine: 1%
United Kingdom: 1%
Germany: .9%
Saudi Arabia: .9%
Iran: .9%
Egypt: .8%
Countries on 2011 list, but not on 2012: Sweden, Uruguay
Language of pages viewed in 2012
English:
18.4%
Spanish:
55%
Top content in 2012
Map of Spain and Portugal (1810)
Gutenberg Bible (1454)
National Library of Brazil
Bavarian State Library
Sweden Ancient and Modern (1698)
Portrait of Chola Woman, Bolivia (1911)
National Library of Sweden
Library of Congress
Teresa Cristina Maria,
Empress of Brazil (1850)
The Light of the Eyes and the Enlightened
Landscape of Vision (16th century)
National Library of Brazil
National Library and Archives of Egypt
Codex Gigas (Devil’s Bible) (1200)
Anatomical Drawings, Texts (1573)
National Library of Sweden
Wellcome Library
Map of St. Augustine (1589)
First Nerchinsk Regiment of Zabaikal
Cossack Troops (1907)
Library of Congress
Russian State Library
Top search terms in 2012
What are we doing now to reach
and engage users?
Twitter
• Launched WDLorg Twitter account in May 2011
• 15,000 followers; gaining 213 followers per week
• We only follow WDL partners
• Promote WDL content, partners, project news. Respond to
user feedback.
• Regular features: #MapMonday, #PhotoFriday
• Completed #WDLTour in which we highlighted one item about
one country per day
• “Can we go around again?”
Comments from Twitter (WDLorg)
• Just what the web needed! Thanks from Argentina.
• One of the best information/image galleries I have found in
ages. (Djibouti)
• Thank you for this great site. Thank you for the treasure of
knowledge. (Syria)
• Cool resource. Hope it continues to grow. (China)
• Totally accessible and for free! (Canada)
• A great discovery! (Spain)
Conferences, presentations
• Booth at World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE)
• Cooperation with Library of Congress Educational
Outreach team:
• WDL promoted at six major educational conferences
• Teacher Institute focused on world cultures
• Added section for teachers to project site
(http://project.wdl.org/education/)
• Presented in Albania, Belarus, Canada, Japan, Spain
• Virtual conferences
Efforts we plan to launch in 2013
Wikipedian-in-Residence
• Wikipedia is the 5th most popular site on the Web
• Available in over 280 languages
• Over 24 million articles
• How many articles link to the WDL?
198
• Referrers from Wikipedia in 2012: 35,000
• Users who come from Wikipedia view more pages than the
average user
• British Museum, U.S. National Archives and Records
Administration, Smithsonian Archives of American Art
Top content in 2012
Map of Spain and Portugal (1810)
Gutenberg Bible (1454)
National Library of Brazil
Bavarian State Library
Sweden Ancient and Modern (1698)
Portrait of Chola Woman, Bolivia (1911)
National Library of Sweden
Teresa Cristina Maria,
Empress of Brazil (1850)
National Library of Brazil
Codex Gigas (Devil’s Bible) (1200)
National Library of Sweden
Map of St. Augustine (1589)
Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Light of the Eyes and the Enlightened
Landscape of Vision (16th century)
National Library and Archives of Egypt
Anatomical Drawings, Texts (1573)
Wellcome Library
First Nerchinsk Regiment of Zabaikal
Cossack Troops (1907)
Russian State Library
Wikipedian objectives
• Serve as liaison between WDL and Wikipedia communities
• Draft Wikipedia-related policies, strategy. Work with WDL
partners.
• Mobilize Wikipedians to better represent WDL content on
Wikipedia in all relevant languages
• Organize WDL outreach events for the Wikipedia
community
• Wikipedian-in-Residence will start in early 2013
Full text search
Full text search
• Increasing the amount of text that can be indexed by
external search engines (Google, Baidu) will increase
traffic and will improve user experience
• Worked with the Bibliotheca Alexandrina on a full text
search application
• Continue work on interface and release in beta in 2013
Mobile optimization
Mobile optimization
• Visits from iPads increased over 480% compared to 2011
• Non-mobile traffic is still over 90% of overall traffic
• Mobile broadband subscriptions are expected to reach 5
billion in 2016. Need to be better positioned for the future.
• Mobile optimization will ensure the user experience on
tablets and smartphones is fast, visually appealing, and
intuitive.
• Work to begin in first quarter of 2013
Mobile device trends in 2012
60% of iPad users are coming from: Spain, U.S., Mexico, Brazil
iPad application for educators
• Educators are increasingly using iPads in the
classroom and are searching for high-quality
content and activities
• Apple doubled the sale of iPads in U.S. education
market in the 3rd quarter compared to last year;
PC sales dropped 14% during same period.
• Work to begin in first quarter of 2013
Discuss reporting use of
partner content
Reporting use of partner content
• We realize reporting how your content is being
used is important
• Working on sustainable method of providing
useful reports to partners
• Specific questions you would like answered in
regular reports?
“Everybody take my advice,
follow the World Digital Library,
and you’ll be amazed.”
www.wdl.org