  We present new imaging and spectroscopic observations of the fields of five
QSOs with very strong intervening CaII absorption systems at redshifts z<0.5
selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Recent studies of these very rare
absorbers indicate that they may be related to damped Lyman alpha systems
(DLAs). In all five cases we identify a galaxy at the redshift of the CaII
system with impact parameters up to ~24 kpc. In four out of five cases the
galaxies are luminous (L ~L*), metal-rich (Z ~Zsun), massive (velocity
dispersion, sigma ~100 km/s) spirals. Their star formation rates, deduced from
Halpha emission, are high, in the range SFR = 0.3 - 30 Msun/yr. In our
analysis, we paid particular attention to correcting the observed emission line
fluxes for stellar absorption and dust extinction. We show that these effects
are important for a correct SFR estimate; their neglect in previous low-z
studies of DLA-selected galaxies has probably led to an underestimate of the
star formation activity in at least some DLA hosts. We discuss possible links
between CaII-selected galaxies and DLAs and outline future observations which
will help clarify the relationship between these different classes of QSO
absorbers.
