CalCat Newsletter Spring 2007

Articles

 

California State Library Continues FirstSearch Subscriptions for Public Library Participation in the OCLC California Libraries Catalog

The California Libraries Catalog was built by OCLC using the bibliographic and holdings information contributed by California libraries. The California Libraries Catalog can be searched by region, by consortia, by library types, as well as statewide. The Catalog uses the FirstSearch interface which provides three search levels: basic, advanced and expert, suitable for library professionals and customers alike.

A requirement of OCLC is that participants in a project of this kind have a subscription to FirstSearch WorldCat. Continued California State Library support for FirstSearch will depend on several factors, including but not limited to subscription costs, amount of funds available, the OCLC worldcat.org initiative, California Libraries Catalog usage, etc. For FY 2007/08, we will continue to pay those subscription costs for public libraries in the state.

OCLC has announced a new interface called worldcat.org. The California State Library continues to monitor OCLC activity in this area, emphasizing library visibility where users do their searching:on the Web.

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CalCat Traffic Increasing

OCLC provided us two graphs showing increasing traffic to California libraries through WorldCat.org. The first graph shows the total number of monthly click-throughs from WorldCat.org to local California libraries (for example, linking to the local OPAC) from July 2006 to January 2007. The statistics are for all CalCat libraries collectively.

In August 2006, OCLC launched WorldCat.org "1.0" which allows anyone on the internet to search all of WorldCat without authentication. The introduction of 1.0 corresponds to a surge in click-throughs that was sustained between August and December 2006.

In December 2006, OCLC released a service that matches an Internet user’s IP address with a physical location (zip code). Based on the mapping, users now see a suggested list of libraries near them that own a selected title. This feature preceded another marked increase in traffic in the following month.

The next graph shows the monthly growth in click through traffic as a percentage. For example, the click through traffic in July 2006 actually declined by 6% from the level of traffic in July 2005.

In August 2006, however, the click through traffic increased by 100% over the same period in 2005. And in September 2006 the click through traffic increased by about 200% the September 2005 level.

By January 2007, click through traffic increased 315% over the traffic the previous year.

From July 2006 through January 2007, click through traffic back to California libraries has increased 156% over the same period in the previous fiscal year.

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CalCat & Teen Posters and Bookmarks now available:

Libraries can print their own posters and bookmarks by downloading the pdf files for posters and bookmarks on the Calcat.org site:

http://www.calcat.org/catalog_poster.pdf and:

http://www.calcat.org/CA_bookmarker.pdf

Libraries can also order these materials directly from Califa. Posters are $5.00 plus shipping; Bookmarks are $5.00 per 100. The order form is online, available here: http://calcat.org/marketing/order.php

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Teen Guide: How to Get an A; the California Way


Most Californians don't really know how to find and use all the resources and services their public library offers and have no clue about their library's online tools. For teens the challenge is even greater. What is a database, anyway?? CalCat? WorldCat? Double What!? Helping students do research offers a practical way to demonstrate the materials and personalized help available from libraries and librarians.

To help libraries bridge the teen-library divide, Califa staff has worked with schools and some young people to come up with a guide that we hope can help teens understand how library resources fit with library resources.

We’ve created a Guide to Getting An A; the California Way and related posters and bookmarks that libraries can use. Califa is sending out a poster & set of bookmarks to each public library and the school libraries that helped with our “Get An A” exhibit at the California School Library Association Conference last November.

Staff has also created a Guide on How to use these Marketing Materials:
1: Contact local schools, specially library media specialists. Share bookmarks and posters with them and offer workshops for teachers and students.
2: Send press release, including your library's information to local media, making sure the list includes high school and community college newspapers.
3: Use the "Get an A" student campaign as an opportunity to get library staff up-to-speed about online tools... Have an "internal launch" event/party for the whole staff to introduce the "Guide to Getting an A" to share all the materials and ideas and do a quick demo of the workshop, and let everyone know that reaching students is high on the agenda.
4. Get posters up outside the library in schools, coffee shops, bookstores, parks & recreation field houses etc.
5: Collect testimonials from satisfied students and put them to work on your website in print materials etc.
6: Ask students to show their parents how to use the library's online resources.
7: Let us know any suggestions to update the "How to Get an A" information. The web is a fast-changing information resource. We’ll be happy to update this page with your suggestions. Contact: hteysko@califa.org

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CLSA Library Systems: An Offer

Califa staff is willing and able to visit CLSA system office over the next few months to help staff understand the potential uses of CalCat and WorldCat.org for their members. If you would like Califa staff to visit your library system, please contact resteves@califa.org to set up an appointment.

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Putting Calcat.org on your website:

1: Get the "calcat.org logo" listed under the "For Librarian’s" tab on the Calcat.org homepage. (It’s listed under "Marketing and Promotion Materials".) "Save as picture" to the folder where all of the images on your library's website are stored (you might have to ask your webmaster where those images are stored).

Alternatively, you can insert the image directly from the CalCat website. Directions for both are below.

2: To link to the website, type in the html code on your library’s website:

<a href="http://www.calcat.org"> add image link from below here</a>

And to add the Calcat image type from your direct server:

<img src="refer to the above file where you have stored the calcat logo file"></a>

or directly linking from the CalCat website:

<img src="http://www.calcat.org/images/color_catalog.jpg"></a>

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Notes from the Field

Monterey Bay Area Consortium
For the California Library Association Conference in Sacramento last November, Rebecca Bergeon created a PowerPoint presentation and talk (script) explaining how MOBAC replaced its old Z39.50 ILL system with the California Libraries Catalog and the OCLC ILL module.
View the Powerpoint.
View the Script.

Santa Clara County Public Library
Based upon the experience of Santa Clara County Public Library, here are step-by-step instructions for deep-linking your records to Worldcat.org and setting up the ILL module that your patrons can use.
View the PowerPoint

Santa Monica Public Library
Want your users to see if a particular book in your collection is held by a nearby library? Santa Monica gives a few simple guides to doing what they did to set up this simple, but very useful function in your catalog, using the power of Worldcat.org
View the Document

North State Cooperative Library System
is giving up its quarterly updated cd rom union catalog and is migrating over to use its regional grouping under the California Libraries Catalog as their union list. Target implementation: April 1, 2007. For more information contact: Annette Milliron; annetnbc@sonic.net

Mountain Valley Cooperative Library System
MVLS turned off its old DRA Z39.50 system in July, 06 and migrated over to CalCat as their union catalog. They are busily batchloading and are looking at MOBAC’s ILL operation as the next step in service delivery. Information contact: Annette Milliron; annetnbc@sonic.net

Is your library doing something interesting with CalCat or Worldcat.org? If so, send us a note: resteves@califa.org.

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OCLC-sponsored Webinars Answer Your Nitty Gritty Questions

OCLC and Califa are sponsoring a series of "nitty-gritty" webinars to help library staff deal with many of the technical and staff-support issues resulting from library and public use of WorldCat, Worldcat.org and CalCat.org. Sam Sayre, OCLC’s master trainer, has been fielding questions about management policies; reviewing technical information about linking to neighborhood libraries’ holdings, authenticating users and helping librarians understand the batch-loading, cataloging and deep-linking issues and options.

More workshops will be held in May. Registration is available on the Califa site, and staff are encouraged to ask specific questions that should be addressed during the webinar.

Schedule:
Tues April 10 (11am) & Friday, April 20 (10 am)
Tues, May 8 (9am) & Friday, May 18, 2007 (10 am)

Registrations will close 2 days before the scheduled meeting.
Registrations will be limited to 20 attendees
Register here

Live Meeting will be the software used.
For more information contact: sayres@oclc.org or resteves@califa.org

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