For the first quarter of 2017, we have been using a third-party archiving company to maintain our PDF files for past issues. However, we have run into some difficulties with this system.
First, the system is a little clumsy to work with for our members. It is awkward and inefficient for members to log in to a third-party website to access the archives. Because of this, many members have encountered difficulty accessing the archives.
Second, we have many additional features we plan to add to the site, and some of these features require the archives to be stored in text files on our own website. For instance, one of our members, Cougan Collins, suggested adding a way to mark articles that have been used so bulletin editors do not accidentally re-run an article. This is a good idea. We’d also like to allow members to mark articles as “favorites” for future use. This will require housing the archive in a searchable format on our own site.
To facilitate this future expansion, we are moving the archives to a text-based format. On your membership home page, you can now see a TEXT ARCHIVE heading near the bottom of the page, followed by links to monthly issues. Currently only a few months are moved to this format, but you will see new months pop up daily in this area. Premium Members and Digital+Print Members can access all of these articles in the archives, as well as use the special search function located on that page.
We hope this change will make it easier to utilize the archives, and open the door for some more powerful features to come.
Have a great day, and thank you for using Bulletin Digest. Your input is always welcome and appreciated!
Matt Clifton
Editor