By Laura Chittivej

Watch your library's mail box. The end of February BCR is mailing information about this year's Spring CD-ROM Group Purchase. The packet will contain a list of about 150 popular CD-ROM titles that BCR is offering this spring at discount prices.

This semiannual group purchase gives librarians and school media specialists the opportunity to buy some of the most sought after educational and entertainment CD-ROM titles available and at a discount as much as 40 percent below the regular retail price. During last fall's group purchase, schools and libraries in 10 states purchased more than $240,000 worth of CD-ROMs.

You may even see additional savings. The large volume of orders included in past BCR CD-ROM Group Purchases have enabled BCR staff to negotiate additional savings on top of the initial 40 percent. This additional discount is deducted from your invoice before it is mailed to you.

To add your name to the mailing list, contact BCR's Laura Chittivej at (800) 397-1552 or lchittiv@bcr.org. After February 24, the CD-ROM titles and order information also will be available on BCR's web site at www.bcr.org.

BCR also has an electronic mailing list, BCR-CDGROUP, that provides updates about the group purchase. To subscribe send a subscribe bcr-cdgroup message to majordomo@bcr.org or sign up on BCR's web site on the Publications page.

The deadline to order titles from this group purchase is Friday, March 26. It is imperative that libraries send their orders quickly and not wait until the last minute.