JustintheStacks

JustintheStacks Annual Report: Year One

Every year, the State of Texas requires all public libraries to submit an annual report to maintain accreditation status with the state. I have to submit statistics, financials, and a plethora of other metrics to keep the library’s accreditation. This exacting process is important as it provides access to state funding, grants, and resources that we would otherwise be denied, or unable to afford on our own.

While none of that applies here, I thought it would be fun, as this is a library-centric blog, to take the concept of the annual report and apply it to my Bear Blog.

As you may have guessed by now, as of today, I’ve made it one year on Bear! I honestly never expected to be making this post. All of my prior blogging endeavors failed miserably after a few months, largely due, well entirely due, to my lack of writing. I've certainly not posted as much as I had envisioned, but I did way better than expected.

JustintheStacks Annual Report: Year One

Collection Development

Commentary: When I started this blog, I had high hopes of posting weekly, at a minimum. That obviously didn't happen. The 2.3 PMM is actually a bit skewed too. I did not post anything from July 2025 through September 2025, but managed four posts in both October and November of that year. I guess that’s why it is an average. I obviously have a ton of unfinished posts. Some are just a sentence, or a few words describing an idea, many just need a good edit and could move to Written, but Unposted. I need to spend some time going through those.

Circulation Statistics

Commentary: I have no frame of reference for whether 2,381 page views is good, bad, or average. What I do know is that every one of those views represents someone choosing to spend a few moments reading something I wrote, which is still a bit strange to think about.

The Bear discovery feed did the heavy lifting this year. Social media, despite all the advice to "build an audience," never really moved the needle. That wasn’t exactly a surprise as I have spent the better part of a decade avoiding social media. As such, I am quite terrible at making frequent posts, or even remembering to post at all.

  1. “I Haven’t Had Meth in Five Days.”
  2. A New Life for an Old Friend
  3. The Growth You Need...
  4. Breaking My Addiction
  5. I Am Old, Gandalf...

Commentary: I was completely blown away by the response “I Haven't Had Meth In Five Days” received. It was my first post to ever hit Bear’s Trending page. Not to mention that it spent some time in the number one spot. More importantly, that post garnered me several emails from you all. I discovered that many of my Bear denizens are currently working in libraries, had previously worked in libraries, or were considering a move to libraries, and wanted my advice. That was amazing. I wish to thank all of you who reached out to me, you know who you are. I hope my responses were adequate.

Patron Statistics

Commentary: My subscriber base remains small but stable.

Experiments

Commentary: I have long held the dream, since I was a small child, of being a paid writer/author. Many of these “experiments” revolve around trying to make some kind of dime from my written words. None have panned out yet, but NetGalley provides me free books, which is a pretty nice consolation prize.

What I Learned From a Year of Blogging

I’ve learned that, like all things, consistency is the key to success. People can’t read what I write if I never hit publish, and I can’t hit publish if I never write. I have dozens of unfinished drafts and half-formed ideas that I need to take advantage of to greatly increase my PMM average.

Strategic Plan for Year Two

Conclusion

I look forward to another year here on Bear. I am quite proud of myself for having made it this long, and for reaching this degree of success despite my lack of consistency. As I mentioned in the introduction I have countless failed blogging experiments under my belt. This is the first one to have ever hit a full year. I will take that progress and keep going.

I’m Justin. I write about librarianship, leadership, public service, and books. If you found this piece relatable, leave me a like or send me an email. Subscribe if you want more of what’s bouncing around in my head. If you found this article helpful, consider buying me a coffee.

#annualreport #blog #reflections