Fresh Produce Coming to Fremont Main

One day in the not so distant future, you’ll be visiting the Fremont Main Library and leaving with a bag full of library items and another bag of fresh produce.  Fremont Main is entering into a partnership with Dig Deep Farms and Produce, a social enterprise and a project of the Alameda County Deputy Sheriffs’ Activities League.  The Dig Deep Farms website describes a weekly delivery service of fresh produce; the partnership with Fremont Main Library is a pilot project that will bring Dig Deep produce stands once a week to consumers for the first time.  That those first produce stands will be on library grounds certainly says something of Fremont Main’s role in our community.  So how about that?  With one trip to the library, you will be taking home food for the mind as well as food for the body.  It certainly is a good deal to look forward to.  You’ll know when it’s here.

Read Full Post »

Daybreak Trio at Fremont Main February 16

Daybreak Trio

The Daybreak Trio performs in the Fukaya Room at 2 p.m. Saturday, February 16.  Daybreak Trio plays a variety of styles:  soft jazz, Cajun, Latin, original arrangements, world music selections.  Group leader Wayne Siligo, jazz and pop guitarist, vocalist, saxophonist and blues-harp player, was a tenor soloist with the Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose symphonies.  He played three nights weekly for 16 years at Papillon French restaurant on Mission Blvd., Fremont, and is now music director at the California School for the Blind, also in Fremont.  Markus Choo, keyboardist and award-winning musician-CSB graduate, is the accompanist for the school Glee Club.  Completing the Daybreak Trio is David Grandstaff, percussionist, guitarist and vocalist and teaching assistant at the CSB.

So, mark your calendar now:  Daybreak Trio, 2 p.m. Saturday, February 16, at the Fremont Main Library.  Check the online calendar regularly at http://bit.ly/V1WFhI and use the “Remind Me” button to automatically receive an emailed reminder of your chosen events.

Read Full Post »

Meet With Congressman Michael M. Honda at the Library

Congressman Honda represents the -17th District – the cities of Fremont, Newark, San Jose, Santa Clara, Cupertino, and Sunnyvale.

Mr. Honda will have Satellite Office locations at:

Fremont Main Library, on the 2nd Floor, Room 13
1st, 2nd, and 3rd Fridays of each month (excluding holidays)
Hours: 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.

And

Newark Library
4th Friday of each month (excluding holidays)
Hours 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

You can also contact him at:

District Office
Monday thru Friday (excluding holidays)
9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
2001 Gateway Place, Suite 670W
San Jose, CA 95110
Phone: 408-436-2720
Fax: 408-436-2721
Website: http://www.Honda.house.gov

More Information

Read Full Post »

Esalen Institue: Fifty years of exploring human potential

Esalen is neither a school, nor a church, nor a spa, nor an inn, nor a monastery  and yet its utterly unique mixture contains a bit of all of the above.

The word itself summons up tantalizing visions of adventure, of unexplored frontiers, of human possibilities yet to be realized. There is the wonder of the place itself, 120 acres of fertile land carved out between mountain and ocean, blessed by a cascading canyon stream and hot mineral springs gushing out of a seaside cliff

With the new year, Esalen steps into our second half-century of pioneering deep change in self and society, opening and enriching our lives, our relationships, and our shared culture in ways unimagined fifty years ago. This tradition continues and even accelerates in our programs today, as we take the tools created by Esalen (and our ever-growing number of partners), and find new integral applications, new synergies of tools and methods in whole-person education, in leadership training and organizational development, social action, sustainability, spiritual activism, and more

Esalen boasts breakthroughs in fields from Gestalt psychology to nuclear physics, from philosophy to economics, from body work to citizen diplomacy. Esalen sponsored Boris Yeltsin’s first visit to the United States, immediately after which he resigned from the Communist Party. The rest, as they say, is history. Excerpts from http://www.esalen.org/

Books on Esalen Institute @ Library

Books on Personal growth @ Library

 

Read Full Post »

More music coming to the Fremont Main Library

Another chance is coming up to just sit back and listen or, if so moved, to dance and swing at the Fremont Main Library.  Gus Wedermeyer’s 3 O’Clock Jump Big Band performs in the Fukaya Room 2-4 p.m. Saturday, November 10.

Recent musical offerings at Fremont Main featured the local Indian band Jhankar Live on Saturday, October 13.  The Fukaya Room was filled to capacity and still a crowd of people waited outside to be admitted.  Audience members could not resist dancing to the upbeat music of the group.

The following Saturday,  students from Fremont’s Anna Poklewski Academy of Music treated the community to an afternoon of classical music.  Again, every available seat in the room was taken.  Piano and voice talents regaled concert goers with selections including those by Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Bussoni and Liszt.  The star of the show was award-winning international concert pianist Howard Na, a student of Anna Poklewski.

More music programs are lined up for the coming months at the Fremont Main Library.  All performances are free.  Stay tuned.

Coming to the Fremont Main Library November 10.

Members of the audience dance to the music of Jhankar Live.

Concert pianist Howard Na performs at the Fremont Main Library.

Read Full Post »

Work’s New Age

My friend Jim Huntington has written a book that got an Eppy (independent book publishers) award called Work’s New Age, in which he discusses how the job scene has changed permanently and has some notions about how to work and look for work within this new paradigm. While I haven’t always agreed with him, he is certainly thought-provoking. He also maintains a blog and he’s just posted a new entry about specific careers people might want to look into, based on their resistance to being out-sourced or automated into non-existence. The post is at : http://worksnewage.blogspot.com/2012/10/what-career-fields-best-resist.html but here it is in full:

What Career Fields Best Resist Automation and Globalization?

In Work’s New Age, the largest reasons for jobs to be lost are automation and globalizaton.  Automation generally comes down to two questions – how resistant a job is to robotics, and how resistant it is to computer algorithms and connectivity.  Globalization is a factor when a job does not need to be done locally.

Which career fields, in general, are most locally bound?  This table presents the average ratings within each of the 25 U.S. Department of Labor occupation groups, weighting each job equally, using ratings of 1 for low local boundness, 2 for medium, and 3 for high, in order from most to least locally bound:

 

Occupation   Group	1 to   3 Scale	Average   Result
Building and Grounds Cleaning	3.00	Very Locally Bound
Construction and Extraction	3.00	Very Locally Bound
Food Preparation and Serving	3.00	Very Locally Bound
Personal Care and Service	2.88	Very Locally Bound
Farming, Fishing, and Forestry	2.86	Very Locally Bound
Installation, Maintenance, and   Repair	2.78	Very Locally Bound
Community and Social Service	2.70	Very Locally Bound
Healthcare	2.69	Very Locally Bound
Protective Service	2.57	Very Locally Bound
Transportation and Material   Moving	2.31	Somewhat Locally Bound
Education, Training, and   Library	2.29	Somewhat Locally Bound
Entertainment and Sports	2.25	Somewhat Locally Bound
Management	2.07	Somewhat Locally Bound
Sales	2.06	Somewhat Locally Bound
Production	1.90	Somewhat Locally Bound
Office and Administrative   Support	1.89	Somewhat Locally Bound
Legal	1.67	Somewhat Locally Bound
Life, Physical, and Social   Science	1.65	Somewhat Locally Bound
Media and Communications	1.60	Somewhat Locally Bound
Architecture and Engineering	1.30	Not Locally Bound
Arts and Design	1.30	Not Locally Bound
Business and Financial	1.28	Not Locally Bound
Math	1.00	Not Locally Bound
Computer and Information   Technology	1.00	Not Locally Bound
Military	1.00	Not Locally Bound
Overall   Average	2.18	Somewhat Locally Bound

 
How about resistance to robotic technology?  When we use the same 1-2-3 system, also averaged among each job within each occupational group, we get this comparison:

Occupation   Group	1 to   3 Scale	Average   Result
Business and Financial	3.00	Very Resistant to Robotics
Community and Social Service	3.00	Very Resistant to Robotics
Computer and Information   Technology	3.00	Very Resistant to Robotics
Education, Training, and   Library	3.00	Very Resistant to Robotics
Entertainment and Sports	3.00	Very Resistant to Robotics
Legal	3.00	Very Resistant to Robotics
Life, Physical, and Social   Science	3.00	Very Resistant to Robotics
Management	3.00	Very Resistant to Robotics
Math	3.00	Very Resistant to Robotics
Architecture and Engineering	2.93	Very Resistant to Robotics
Healthcare	2.81	Generally Resistant to Robotics
Arts and Design	2.80	Generally Resistant to Robotics
Farming, Fishing, and Forestry	2.71	Generally Resistant to Robotics
Personal Care and Service	2.68	Generally Resistant to Robotics
Media and Communications	2.60	Generally Resistant to Robotics
Sales	2.59	Generally Resistant to Robotics
Food Preparation and Serving	2.50	Generally Resistant to Robotics
Protective Service	2.50	Generally Resistant to Robotics
Installation, Maintenance, and   Repair	2.49	Generally Resistant to Robotics
Building and Grounds Cleaning	2.17	Somewhat Resistant to Robotics
Office and Administrative   Support	2.11	Somewhat Resistant to Robotics
Transportation and Material   Moving	2.03	Somewhat Resistant to Robotics
Military	2.00	Somewhat Resistant to Robotics
Construction and Extraction	1.80	Somewhat Resistant to Robotics
Production	1.19	Not Resistant to Robotics
Overall   Average	2.45	Generally Resistant to Robotics

 

 

The third table shows susceptibility of a job to being automated through computing algorithms and computing connectivity.  Applying the same 1-2-3 scale job-by-job produces the following:

Occupation   Group	1 to   3 Scale	Average   Result
Building and Grounds Cleaning	3.00	Very Resistant to Computing   Algorithms and Connectivity
Farming, Fishing, and Forestry	3.00	Very Resistant to Computing   Algorithms and Connectivity
Food Preparation and Serving	3.00	Very Resistant to Computing   Algorithms and Connectivity
Installation, Maintenance, and   Repair	3.00	Very Resistant to Computing   Algorithms and Connectivity
Military	3.00	Very Resistant to Computing Algorithms   and Connectivity
Personal Care and Service	3.00	Very Resistant to Computing   Algorithms and Connectivity
Protective Service	3.00	Very Resistant to Computing   Algorithms and Connectivity
Construction and Extraction	2.98	Very Resistant to Computing   Algorithms and Connectivity
Management	2.93	Very Resistant to Computing   Algorithms and Connectivity
Life, Physical, and Social   Science	2.74	Generally Resistant to Computing   Algorithms and Connectivity
Community and Social Service	2.70	Generally Resistant to Computing   Algorithms and Connectivity
Transportation and Material   Moving	2.69	Generally Resistant to Computing   Algorithms and Connectivity
Healthcare	2.69	Generally Resistant to Computing   Algorithms and Connectivity
Production	2.68	Generally Resistant to Computing   Algorithms and Connectivity
Math	2.60	Generally Resistant to Computing   Algorithms and Connectivity
Entertainment and Sports	2.50	Generally Resistant to Computing   Algorithms and Connectivity
Education, Training, and   Library	2.35	Somewhat Resistant to Computing   Algorithms and Connectivity
Sales	2.35	Somewhat Resistant to Computing   Algorithms and Connectivity
Media and Communications	2.30	Somewhat Resistant to Computing   Algorithms and Connectivity
Arts and Design	2.20	Somewhat Resistant to Computing   Algorithms and Connectivity
Architecture and Engineering	2.07	Somewhat Resistant to Computing   Algorithms and Connectivity
Legal	1.83	Somewhat Resistant to Computing   Algorithms and Connectivity
Business and Financial	1.80	Somewhat Resistant to Computing   Algorithms and Connectivity
Office and Administrative   Support	1.74	Somewhat Resistant to Computing Algorithms   and Connectivity
Computer and Information   Technology	1.38	Not Resistant to Computing   Algorithms and Connectivity
Overall   Average	2.58	Generally Resistant to Computing   Algorithms and Connectivity

 

As you can see, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, some of the careers that have been first will later be last.  You will see a number of rather modest occupations close to the top, and some with excellent reputations and even consensus high future expectations near the bottom.

Read Full Post »

Where Is Legal Reference?

At the Fremont Main Library, the “Legal Reference” sign, if it is still there, will be gone soon as legal reference items are now filed in the call number 340 section of the General Reference area.  The Legal Reference section has shifted, and legal material remains available on the shelves and online.

Nolo books are popular legal reference items.  Since 1971, Nolo’s mission has been to help consumers and small businesses find answers to their everyday legal and business questions. The most popular chapters of Nolo books are free online.  Also, a search of the Alameda County Library catalog at www.aclibrary.org will produce Nolo titles.   More legal help is available under the Research tab of the library’s home page.  There the Legal Information guide includes a Legal Assistance section where there is a link to the Superior Court of California, Alameda County Self-help site.  Also under the Research tab is a listing for A-Z Resources, in particular the Legal Information Resource Center under the letter “L”.   Select an item under “Browse by Category” and two or three clicks later you’ll find a complete Nolo book, with each chapter conveniently shown as a search result.

Speaking of things legal, a while back I inherited a ruler, a Nolo promo item, from a colleague and just recently read the writing on it.  Here’s what my Nolo ruler says, tweaked to show titles in the Alameda County Library catalog.

Favorite Rules from NOLO

Be nice to your kids.  They’ll choose your nursing home.

Or read Long-term Care before you disown them!

Improve your memory:  Loan money to a student.

Or give the graduate in your life a hand with Solve your money troubles.

HR doesn’t need to know all the answers, just where to find them.

Employment law is the place to start.

Marriage is about love.  Divorce is about money.

Help a friend get a fair deal with Divorce & Money.

Life isn’t fair.  It’s just fairer than death, that’s all.

-William Goldman, “The Princess Bride”

Plan your estate can help even things out.

Treat others as you would have them treat you.

Dealing with problem employees provides fair ways to cope with office challenges.

Read Full Post »

Successful Business Plans Seminar

 

Fremont Main Library is hosting a  free Alameda Country Small Business Development Center seminar:

 

SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS

 

PLANS

Fremont Main Library – Fukaya Meeting Room

Thursday, May 10, 2012, 8:30 a.m. – 12 Noon

 

Learn the fundamental of writing an excellent business plan for your specific business.

The business plan is the foundation for profitable growth, raising capital, communicating with employees, vendors and customers.  Without a plan, a business will not be well managed and will not be successful.  This class is a must for businesses in all industries, of all types and at all stages of development.

 This seminar is free to all attendees.  Advance reservations are required.  Refreshments will be served.  Register on-line at www.acsbdc.org/events2.  Sponsored by the Alameda County Library with generous assistance from the Small Business Development Center, the City of Fremont and the Fremont Chamber of Commerce.

Read Full Post »

Still Looking for a Job?

The Tri-City libraries will present a series of Job Search Workshops in the next few months. Watch our calendar of events at www.aclibrary.org.

On Wednesday, January 11, from 3:30 – 5 p.m., “Winning Resumes” will be the topic at Fremont Main Library. You can build your resume while you learn how to optimize your skills and market yourself to your employer.

The series of job workshops is presented by Tri-Cities One Stop Career Center (Ohlone), Newark.

“Winning Resumes” will also be given on January 6^th at the Union City Library from 3:30 – 5 p.m. and on January 19^th at the Newark Library from 6:30 – 8 p.m.

Other Job and Business Events:

http://www.fremontbusiness.com/

http://acsbdc.org/

http://www.fremont.gov/workshops

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/calendar/

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/calendar/

Read Full Post »

Law in the library redux

On the fourth Tuesday of the month, people sign up at the Fremont Main Library to take part in a lottery that awards 15 free minutes of consultation with an attorney.  The Lawyer in the Library program at Fremont Main this year ends on Tuesday, November 22, and resumes in January.  During the break, volunteer lawyers may still be available in other libraries that offer the program.  Since registration methods vary, be sure to contact the host library beforehand and find out how to register.  The Information Desk at Fremont Main can be reached at tel. (510) 745-1401.

If you are researching a legal matter, you may find something useful at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center.   There is also legal information available through the Alameda County Library website.

Incidentally, on a recent trip to Hong Kong, I heard of “villain hitting” for the first time.  I did not have the chance to see how this is done, but apparently here’s how the ceremony goes. I wonder what made me think of this just now?

Read Full Post »