In an effort to provide ABC members and visitors to the site with a better online experience, ABC has contracted with Convio, a firm that specializes in hosting and enhancing nonprofit Web sites. The new site features more security for financial transactions, easier navigation, and a fresh new design. With Convio’s software, e-mails sent from the new site to ABC members will avoid spam filters to improve delivery. The new site will also automate many financial transactions and membership renewals, enabling ABC staff to devote more time to creating and delivering the quality educational materials ABC members have come to expect.
Access to ABC’s password-protected Web site is just one of the many benefits offered through membership with ABC. The site includes archives of the journal HerbalGram from 1990 through the current issue; more than 3000 HerbClipTM summaries and critical reviews with 28 new HerbClips added each month; hundreds of monographs from The Complete German Commission E Monographs and Herbal Medicine: Expanded Commission E Monographs; more than 100 overviews of herbs used in personal care products; thousands of images; and much, much more.
One of the big changes to the site is how visitors will access the materials referred to above. Along the top navigation bar, visitors will see a button labeled Herbal Library. When this button is clicked, visitors will see descriptions of and links to HerbalGram Online, HerbClip Online, and other ABC educational materials and searchable databases. Currently, the ability to search can only occur within each database, such as HerbalGram or HerbClip, but ABC’s Information Technology team is working on an enhanced search function that will search all of the site’s content at once.
Another major change is that ABC members must now use their e-mail address to log in to ABC’s site and gain access to online benefits. Non-member visitors who register their name and e-mail address will have access to more information than casual visitors who do not log in. For ABC members who have not logged in to the new site yet, ABC respectfully requests that such members please log in using the e-mail address they originally submitted to ABC. Then the member will be e-mailed a temporary password. Once that password is used for logging in, the member can go to “My Profile,” located on the left navigation bar, and change the password and update the profile if desired.
ABC encourages all ABC members and HerbalGram readers to visit the new site and take a short survey, available through a hyperlink on the home page, to give ABC feedback on this new site. ABC deeply values the opinions and suggestions of all of its members and will continue to improve the site over the coming months.
—Gayle Engels and Aileen Truax