Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Save the Date: Califa Vendor Fair, August 27

We are so excited to be able to announce our upcoming Califa Vendor Fair, to be held August 27 at the University Library of Santa Clara University.

This day will bring together many of our vendors, and members, for extended training and demostration sessions that will allow you to learn about products in depth, get updates, ask questions, and see how colleagues from other libraries are using and marketing their subscriptions. The event will start at 8:30am with breakfast, and then be broken into 50 minute segments. During each segment there will be several demonstrations going on that you may choose from, up to 8 at a time. There will be a total of six segments during the day, and each vendor will have at least two presentation spots.

The Vendor Fair will be unique in that it's not just a chance to learn about new vendors, but also to learn about updates from products you already have, and share best practices with other libraries, learning how they might be using a product you already have, or are considering.

We have started putting information on our website on this page (which is still very much under development): www.califa.org/vendorfair2009.php As more vendors are confirmed, we will be adding them, as well as a final grid of vendors and their presentation slots a few weeks before the event, so attendees can start to plan which demonstrations to see.

There will be a fee of $20 for Califa members to attend, which includes breakfast and lunch ($30 for non-members). You may also register on the information page. Registration is currently open. Please note that registration will be capped at 100 attendees due to space restrictions, so you will want to register early to ensure your place.

Please let us know if you have any questions, and we look forward to seeing you on August 27 in Santa Clara!

Monday, May 18, 2009

Altarama DeskStats Webinars

For those libraries participating in the Altarama free trial of DeskStats, there are several upcoming webinars that you may want to attend. They are: Coordinator Introduction, Staff Introduction and Creating Reports. For more details, the times, and registration links, see below.

Califa DeskStats Project: Coordinator Training
This orientation webinar is intended for the project coordinator for your library.

It routinely lasts no more than 20 minutes, and covers the following topics:
1) The Califa DeskStats Project parameters
2) DeskStats functionality
3) What you need to get started - we will cover this together:
-- Name & contact information for your identified project coordinator
-- Name of your organization/library
-- Names of locations where you receive/capture requests
-- Information to create logins
-- Copy or copies (may be blank) of your current reference statistics form(s)

Register for a session now by clicking a date below:

Thu, May 21, 2009 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM PDT
Thu, May 28, 2009 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM PDT

Thu, Jun 4, 2009 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM PDT


Califa DeskStats Project - Staff Orientation
This orientation webinar is intended for librarians who will be working with DeskStats.

It routinely lasts no more than 30 minutes, and covers the following topics:

1) The Califa DeskStats Project parameters
2) DeskStats functionality in your library's setting

Register for a session now by clicking a date below:

Wed, May 20, 2009 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM PDT
Wed, May 27, 2009 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM PDT
Wed, Jun 3, 2009 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM PDT
Thu, May 21, 2009 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM PDT
Thu, May 28, 2009 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM PDT
Thu, Jun 4, 2009 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM PDT

Califa DeskStats Project - Creating Reports
This orientation webinar is intended for the project coordinator for your library.

It routinely lasts no more than 30 minutes, and covers the following topics:

1) Creating reports in DeskStats

Register for a session now by clicking a date below:

Wed, May 20, 2009 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM PDT
Wed, May 27, 2009 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM PDT
Wed, Jun 3, 2009 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM PDT

Once registered you will receive an email confirming your registration
with information you need to join the Webinar.


System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Califa Member Helpdesk

We are excited to share with you our new "helpdesk" for members to ask us questions. Rather than using traditional email, which can be lost and difficult to manage, we are implementing RefTracker from Altarama for all questions from members.

On our Contact Us page of our website, Califa.org, members will now see several options for submitting questions including vendor quote requests, tech support, and billing queries. When you submit a query, you will now be able to track the status of the question, see who has been assigned to answer it, and the estimated time to receive your answer. For Califa, it will allow us to build a knowledge base of frequently asked questions over time, and more easily track requests from our members.

We are very excited to use this new system. It will help us answer your questions more efficiently, and will help members to continually track and update their questions without having to keep track of an email trail. Feel free to try it out and let us know what you think.

The direct link is here: http://www.califa.org/directory.php We look forward to receiving your feedback!