Special on Book Trucks through Highsmith

Check out this flyer to see special prices for Califa members on book trucks from Highsmith. If you order, please make sure you use the correct discount code, listed on the flyer by the order number. Otherwise you won't get the full discount.

Let us know if you have any questions/comments.

Chinese eBook Trial

If your library has any interest in Chinese eBooks, you may want to take part in our current trial of several Chinese eBook companies to help determine the best products for our members. Yu Tao at Pleasanton is organizing the trials and will be helping to aggregate the responses. Please email Califa for more information on taking part in this trial.

Discount Registration on BookExpo

BookExpo America 2008

Los Angeles Convention Center

May 29 - June 1, 2008

Sign up and receive a Califa discount for BookExpo America using our convenient online registration form. If you would like to register a group of 20 or more please call 866.209.5439 (CA only) for more information.

The many offerings for BookExpo America include:

• Latest Books, Advanced Read Copies, and Galleys for the summer and fall seasons.
• 1,000 Authors to meet, greet, listen to, and recruit for your library.
• Over 2,000 Exhibitors with thousands of money saving show specials.
• 1,200+ Publishers - including Major Publishers, University Presses, Independents Houses, and Audio Publishers. Most of which you won't see anywhere else.
• Sessions you can use like budgeting, hot book titles, how to program events at your library and more.

Califa members pay $65 for the 3 day pass and $45 for the 1 day pass. The group rate for institutions with 20 or more attendees pay $60 for the 3 day pass and $40 for the day pass. Califa members save $15-20 per person from the standard rate of $60-$85.

Greetings from ALA midwinter in Philadelphia

Heather, Susan, and Michele were in Philadelphia looking at the latest and greatest of products for our member libraries.

Califa is in the City of Brotherly Love

Califa Visits ALA Midwinter in the City of Brotherly Love.

Best Practices: Telephone Notification Survey

We all read the surveys that often get posted on CALIX, and Califa would like to start aggregating and sharing the results of those surveys here on our blog.

On December 12, Linda Arbaugh placed a query on CALIX asking:

• What ILS do you have?
• How long (about) have you offered telephone notification?
• What is the general reaction of your patrons – whether they like it or not
• Have there been any complaints about privacy?
• Have you done a cost-benefit analysis? If so, what were the results?
• Does your ILS offer patrons the option of being notified by phone, email or snail mail?

Within a week, she received 20 responses. To read what the respondents said, go to this link on our website where we have compiled the responses.

Editorial Oceano Review Complete

A few months ago we put out a call to our members to review the new Spanish-language databases from the publishing company Editorial Oceano. We are happy to have completed a review, and this database scored very high - a composite score of 3.6 out of a possible 4.

To read the review, please go to the Clearninghouse area of our website. Go to Califa.org --> Clearinghouse --> Product Reviews. You may have to scroll to page two as only the first ten items are listed on the front page. Alternatively, you can go to this link, which should take you directly to the review.

Many thanks to the participating libraries:
County of Los Angeles
Solano County

We are introducing a free service from Libraries411.com to our members. Libraries411, a Counting Opinions product, provides custom online maps to specific libraries and library systems.

This service allows users to easily search for libraries in their region by IP, name or zip code. The map also provides markers with library contact information, and links to the library’s website. We currently know one member library (Riverside County Library System) that offers a link to their Libraries411 map from their website. You can find the link at http://www.riverside.lib.ca.us/default.asp under the branches tab.

Go to http://www.libraries411.com/ or to the Califa Member Map at http://califa.countingopinions.com/ to see how it works. If you would like to use this service, please contact Michele Alaniz at malaniz@califa.org for username and password. Califa will also host a webinar on January 25 at 10am for anyone interested in learning how to use this service. If you would like to sign up for the webinar, please contact Heather Teysko at hteysko@califa.org.

OCLC Language Sets: Offer Deadline Extended

For those libraries who are looking to grow their non-English collections, Califa and OCLC are currently aggregating an order of the OCLC Language Sets. This service allows you to choose preselected materials for adults or children in any of 15 languages, and includes full MARC records.

The deadline for our aggregated order is February 29. For more information, either email Califa or visit the OCLC Language Sets website.