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

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!

Spring order time for AWE

It's time for our seventh (time flies!) bulk order of the AWE Early Literacy Stations. For more info, view this flyer. And let us know if you have any questions.

Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal on the future of books and ebooks.

An easy way to sign up for the free deskstats trial

For those of you who haven't heard, Altarama is graciously allowing each Califa member to use DeskStats free for the rest of the calendar year, so till December 31, 2009. To sign up, use this form.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Newsbank offer

Newsbank is offering special pricing again on their LA Metro Collection and Bay Area Mero Collection. Details and trial information are below; the source list is attached. If you would like more information, or a quote, please let me know.

NewsBank Spring Offer Subscription period – July 2009 – June 2010

LA Metro Collection
Bay Area Metro Collection

The trial will run through May 15th - please contact us for trial login information.

For demonstrations, questions or to set a live meeting contact Samantha Hobbs 800-762-8182 or shobbs@newsbank.com

Important Notes for Orders:

Upon placement of orders access will be given at no charge through June 31, 2009
Subscriptions will run from July 1, 2009 – June 31.2010

Note: NewsBank offers 50+ Domestic and International E.Image Edtions including the San Francisco Chronicle, New York Times and Barron’ Financial. Please contact Samantha Hobbs for details and price. Orders will run through the league.

Larger packages of CA, United States and International Coverage are available upon request.

Option #1 Bay Area Metro Collection – This is a subset of the California Collection and includes 64 Sources from San Francisco Bay area to San Jose along with the San Francisco Chronicle Electronic Image Edition.

Option #2The LA Metro Collection plus – This is a subset of the California Collection and includes 96 sources from the LA and surrounding counties - this includes the E. Image Edtions of the LA Times.

Regular webinars from Credo Reference

For those of you interested in Credo Reference, they have now scheduled free webinar sessions twice each week. The full schedule can be found at http://corp.credoreference.com/webinars.

Check one out and let us know what you think.