Discount on Infopeople Digital Preservation workshop

Many of you have seen the upcoming Infopeople workshops on Digital Preservation. We are happy to let our members know that there is a discount for Califa members.

For registration and complete information on the workshop, go to the link in the instructions below.

Select the class you want under Digital Preservation: How to Preserve Digital Assets, click the "Registration" button for the class you want, click "Proceed to checkout" button. On the Billing Information page at the bottom, use the following Promotion Code: CALIFA (case is not important). When you click Continue you will see the confirmation page with the cost of $75 and a discount of $25 and the final cost of $50. All you have to do then is click the Complete Registration button.

Trial from Facts on File

Facts on File is doing a Spring trial for our members, which will make all their databases available until March 15. Califa members currently receive discounts on all FOF databases. For login information, email hteysko@califa.org.

New Vendor - Text a Librarian

We are excited to announce a new discount for our members with Text A Librarian. This SMS reference service integrates with existing email or IM software and allows patrons to send questions and receive answers from their mobile phones, while the librarians receive and reply on their computers. For more information check out their website: http://www.textalibrarian.com.

Califa will be aggregating an order for this product at the end of March to get aggregated threshold discounts. For pricing, or any questions, please email califa@califa.org.

Additionally, we will be hosting several webinars and in-person demos. The first webinar is next Tuesday, February 3, at 10am. There will be an in-person demonstration at the Califa office in San Mateo on February 10 at 2pm.

To RSVP for either of these, please send an email to califa@califa.org letting us know whether you will be attending the webinar or the meeting.

Upcoming ALA event for Califa members

For those of you attending ALA Midwinter - MyiLibrary, which is launching their ipod-compatible eAudio product, is having a special demo followed by a meeting to discuss our shared collection. The demo will be at 3pm on Saturday, Jan 24. The meeting will immediately follow. If you would like to attend and want more information, email califa@califa.org.

Member Savings Report

We have finished our Member Savings Report for 2007, and we are happy to report that we helped libraries save about $6 million last year! Read more and view the report here. If you have any questions about your savings, or would like more information, let us know. Thanks!

New Discounts on Raha Books

A new discount for our members to be aware of. If you mention that you heard about them through Califa, all members will receive an 8% discount on materials from Raha Books, which offers Persian books and media. Read more about them here, and let us know if you have any questions.

Califa seeks early adopters for new ipod-compatible eaudio product from Ingram

Yes, that's right - we finally have an IPOD product ready to launch that has current titles, with DRM built in!

Califa will be the first group in the nation to put together a collection with Ingram Digital for their eAudio collection. Their product will officially be launching at ALA in January, but those of you who stopped by the Califa booth at CLA to see their sneak-preview demo saw that the service is already up and working. They are preparing the audio files, and expect to launch with between 3000 and 4000 titles by mid-January for ALA, with more being made available throughout the year.

Our shared collection will launch, around January or February, and will be run on a calendar-year cycle with invoices sent out that are payable any time throughout the year This will give some flexibility to libraries that may want to participate, but need to wait til next year's budget to buy into the service.

To get in on the ground level (which, in addition to the rewarding feeling of being an early-adopter, you'll get to shape the development of the product, and have the additional incentive of a big, initial discount. If potentially interested (no commitment yet), here's what you need to do:

1. Call or email me telling me of your interest.
2. If you haven't seen the product at CLA, or want more detailed information than I can answer, we will set up a webinar with the Ingram folks.
3. You will then need to decide how much money you can put towards the shared collection that we are building. We can then put together a tiered list based on the contributions that people are able to make during 2009.

Once we have a total of the contributions that everyone is able to pledge, then we meet with Ingram & will work with the committed libraries to begin selecting titles for our shared collection based on the title lists that we will receive from Ingram.

Our next eBook/e-resources meeting is in early January, and we can have the IPOD collection & participants defined by then. This offer is ongoing, but the early-adopter pricing will probably not continue past ALA, so make sure you let us know of your interest in participating, and the contribution you can consider this calendar year as soon as possible. We would like to hear from any interested libraries before the E- Resources meeting on Jan. 7

We are so excited to be able to offer this product to our members, and can't wait to get this new collection off the ground!