Publication Date

October 23, 2013

Perspectives Section

AHA Activities

Welcome to the new AHA website. Last week we launched the most comprehensive redesign the Association has undertaken, featuring a new homepage, navigation, a new comment application, a mobile friendly design, plus a ton of other cool new stuff.

Homepage-1The site will continue to evolve and grow as we roll out future phases of development, but for now we wanted to provide a brief overview of some of the more interesting upgrades:

  • Mobile friendly. Our site instantly adapts to whatever screen size you are on, making it much easier to use on a mobile or tablet device.
  • New Perspectives on History article page. Our newly designed article pages display related content, making it easier to find the content that you care about. In addition, we added a new comment application to encourage our readers to join the conversation. Disqus allows readers to log in using a number of social media accounts and e-mail clients, and also stores that login information for the future (depending on how your browser stores cookies).
  • Search 2.0. We also added a new, faceted search (built on Apache SOLR) that allows users to filter and refine their search by category, date, and relevancy. We are still reviewing and tagging content on our website to optimize search results, so expect the features and functions of this more robust search engine to take shape over the coming months.
  • Bonus: For a limited time, everyone can access the online Directory of History Departments and Organizations, with detailed information about programs, faculty and staff, and specializations from over 750 institutions in the US and Canada.

In addition to a number of new features, we also did considerable work curating new resources we hope our members will enjoy and consider sharing with others. Our “News and Advocacy” section highlights the diverse work our members and affiliates are doing to promote the discipline of history, including the latest news items and a “member action” space that features the contributions of our members in the public sphere. In addition, we also created a “Why Study History?” page for both students and teachers to point to when considering the value that come with studying history.WhystudyHistory-2

Of course, with any large website redesign, there will be a few glitches and errors. Due to the recent site renovation, some members’ cookies may have been lost. We apologize for the inconvenience. You can retrieve your password here.

We are still settling into our new website, so please excuse the occasional broken link. We will be working diligently to comb through the site to fix any problems, and your feedback is vitally important to this process, so feel free to speak up!

We hope you enjoy our new look, and want to hear from you. Please refer to the comments section (tweet or Facebook us) and tell us what you like and what needs more work.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.

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