Infopeople is now part of the Califa Group. We at Califa are so proud to support this nationally-known project that provides tailored continuing education designed for libraries by recognized library professionals. Here's our new Infopeople section of the Califa Newsletter:

Library safety is high on everyone’s minds right now. In light of that, we've highlighted some archived webinars that address this topic. 

In other news, Infopeople is taking part in an exciting grant project out of New Jersey - Cross Cultural Communicators in Libraries: Developing Culturally and Linguistically Competent Bilingual Library Professionals . The project will provide cultural competency training and community interpretation and translation skills training to bilingual (Spanish/English) public library professionals. There will be on-ground training in California in Fall 2019. Applications will be accepted early in the new year. We'll keep you posted here in the newsletter, on social media, and on your local library listserv.

There are lots of ways to stay current with Infopeople training opportunities . You can find us on Facebook and Twitter or you can go old-school and join our training announcement list, IFPTraining .

The California State Library is offering the New York Times online to California public libraries, including access to nytimes.com from 1851 to the present! Many libraries are already up and running. Get started here!

What innovative events and services is your library working on? Chicago Public Library is reaching people where they are with this super-cool outreach: Literacy at the Laundromat.

Congratulations to all the Indie Author Project winners from San Diego Public Library and Los Angeles Public Library and those from around the country!  The winning titles reflect the best indie and self-published eBooks each state has to offer in Adult and Young Adult Fiction and can be found in the Library Journal curated SELF-e Select collections on BiblioBoard Library and enki!

Send us your news! Got a grant? A new event? A job opening?

Featured Member: Butte County Library

Library Director: Mel Lightbody

How many people work at BCL, where is it located, and how many branches are there? Twenty-eight people work at Butte County Library, which is located in Butte County, California. We have 6 branches, plus a literacy department.

What are you most excited about at the libraries right now? We are excited to reopen the Paradise Branch Library soon and help the community recover. 

Says Susan Serrano, Assistant Director of Butte County Library, "The Camp Fire was devastating for our entire community but the outpouring of generosity and friendship has been so meaningful as we begin to plan for recovery. While we are fortunate the library is still standing, we know that our work to assist the community in its recovery is just beginning. Heartfelt thanks to all who have donated and reached out to help us."

Butte County Library staff have graciously worked at the library table at the Disaster Recovery Center in Chico providing free reading glasses, maps and books donated by Friends of the Library groups and other generous people wanting to help. The table proved to be popular and meaningful for the evacuees. Donations of beautiful comfort bears recently made by kids at the Bay Area Discovery Museum for displaced Butte County kids following the Camp Fire are also at the Recovery Center.

”I thought it was important that people saw a familiar Paradise face. I know so many of these people, and have given away many, many books and just listened or given out hugs. Helping kids and adults find a new or familiar treasure to take with them, so they can read a bedtime story to the kids or have a book or two or three for themselves...”

Karen Rigby, Paradise Library Staff Member working at the Disaster Recovery Center

Read more about Butte County Library's response to the fires in American Libraries.

Vendor Rep: Adam Brooks

How did ByWater get its start? Owners Nathan Curulla and Brendan Gallagher met at the age of three. Fast forward to September 2008, the pair reconnected to form a Koha support and implementation company. They named it after a place in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy significant as a hub of collaboration and exchange of news and ideas-- similar to the environment found in Koha and Open Source Software in general.

How many people work at ByWater, and where is it located? ByWater employs 24 full-time staff all dedicated to the ongoing support of the Koha ILS. We are a virtual company with a headquarters in California, but our team is spread throughout the country with team members living in Connecticut, California, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, North Carolina, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, and Washington!

How is ByWater making the world a better place?

ByWater Solutions allows libraries to save hundreds of thousands of dollars per year while not having to trade down on LMS functionality. Libraries who use Koha with ByWater can reinvest their savings into meaningful programs within their libraries, staff salaries, or a bigger collection. We  feel that open source as a model really fits well with the future of libraries, since with open access, data, and software, you can control the change that you want to see in the future.

How many people are using ByWater?  ByWater currently supports over 1,300 Koha libraries worldwide. Koha is used by over 15,000 libraries worldwide making it the most used ILS on the planet!

If ByWater was a person, what would its favorite vacation spot be, and why? New Zealand!! Not only because Koha was created there and the LOTR films were made there but because it is a fantastic place to visit!

Infopeople offers a broad range of free one-time webinars, as well as self-paced courses. Some upcoming highlights include:

For full webinar and course listings, see Infopeople.org.

Other upcoming web training:

WebJunction:

PLA: Starting Small with Project Outcome (Wed, Jan 30 from 11 am- 12 noon)

Code4Lib Annual Conference: February 19-22 in San Jose, CA. Register here.

Alaska Library Association Annual Conference: February 28 – March 3 in Juneau, AK. Book your accommodations here .

Electronic Resources and Libraries Conference: March 3-6 in Austin, TX. Register here.

Seguimos Creando Enlaces Conference: March 14-15 in San Diego, CA. Register here .

LibTech Conference: March 21-21 in St. Paul, MN. Register here.

Know of other conferences, trainings, meetups not listed here? Please share them with us!