Need a book for class but the library’s closed? Wish you had an audiobook to take with you on your vacation? Well, stop in at the Fremont Main Library on Saturdays between 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. and learn how to download electronic books (eBooks) and electronic audiobooks (eAudiobooks) from the library’s website. Bring your laptop, tablet, eReader, smartphone or mp3 player and see what works on your device. You’ll find fiction, test books, IT books and much, much more all available 24/7 with your library card. The collections contain eBooks and eAudiobooks for children, teens and adults and the best part…it’s free, and no late fees!!
Archive for October, 2012
eBook & eAudiobook Help- Saturdays 10:30 a.m. -12:30 p.m. at Fremont Main
Posted in Books, tagged eaudiobooks, ebooks on Wednesday, October 31, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Halloween is Coming!
Posted in Books, Children, Fremont on Saturday, October 27, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Five Little Pumpkins 
Five Little Pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The first one said, “Oh, my it’s getting late”
The second one said, “There are witches in the air.”
The third one said, “But we don’t care.”
The fourth one said, “Let’s run, let’s run!”
The fifth one said, “Isn’t Halloween fun?”
Then Woooooo went the wind And OUT went the lights. And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.
The above little poem is one that you may remember from childhood or from your children’s childhood. My kids who now are both grown adults learned this when they were little, and we loved it. We had a lot of fun at Halloween! We went to the Pumpkin Patch and looked for the most sincere pumpkin (remember Charlie Brown‘s Halloween?), we carved our pumpkins, and got costumes ready for the big day. And the anticipation of all those goodies! The school parade of costumes, and the school carnival were always high points at this time of year, too.
So, if you celebrate Halloween, get your pumpkins ready, get your costumes prepared, maybe read a scary story or watch a scary movie. And when Halloween comes, be careful, and have fun! BOO TO YOU!
top ten! (fiction)
Posted in Adult, Books, Children, Fremont, Teens, tagged popular books, top ten on Thursday, October 25, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Ever wonder what everyone is reading? Here are some list of the most popular titles at the Fremont Library
top 10 Adult titles:
1 Fifty shades of Grey / (James, E. L)
2 The help / (Stockett, Kathryn)
3 Gone girl : (Flynn, Gillian)
4 The tombs / (Cussler, Clive)
5 Friends forever : (Steel, Danielle)
6 Fifty shades darker / (James, E. L)
7 The sins of the father / (Archer, Jeffrey)
8 Wicked business : (Evanovich, Janet)
9 Close your eyes / (Johansen, Iris)
10 Come home / (Scottoline, Lisa)
top 10 teen titles
1 The hunger games / (Collins, Suzanne)
2 Mockingjay / (Collins, Suzanne)
3 Catching fire / (Collins, Suzanne)
4 To kill a mockingbird / (Lee, Harper)
5 Catch-22 / (Heller, Joseph)
6 Wuthering Heights / (Brontë, Emily)
7 1984 : (Orwell, George)
8 Fahrenheit 451 : (Bradbury, Ray)
9 Jane Eyre / (Brontë, Charlotte)
10 The color purple / (Walker, Alice)
Top 10 children’s titles:
1 Junie B., first grader : (Park, Barbara)
2 Fancy Nancy : (O’Connor, Jane)
3 Frog and toad are friends / (Lobel, Arnold)
4 Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa : (Silverman, Erica)
5 Cork & Fuzz : (Chaconas, Dori)
6 A fabumouse vacation for Geronimo / (Unknown Author)
7 The cat in the hat / (Seuss)
8 Eve of the Emperor penguin / (Osborne, Mary Pope)
9 Green eggs and ham / (Seuss)
10 Moonlight on the magic flute / (Osborne, Mary Pope)
Register to Vote — Today is the deadline!
Posted in Adult, Information, Older Adults, Uncategorized, tagged Elections, voters on Monday, October 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »
October 22 is the last day to register to vote for the upcoming November 6 presidential general election. Besides voting for the United States president, senator, representative and other local officials, there are state and local propositions of importance as well.
Thanks to Senator Leland Yee’s Senate Bill 397, passed and signed into law by Governor Brown in 2011, you can register online now. If your signature is on file with the Department of Motor Vehicles, it will be appended to your online application and transferred electronically to individual county Register of Voters offices.
To register online, go to http://RegistertoVote.ca.gov
You can also mail your application but it must be postmarked no later than Monday, October 22, 2012.
Who can register to vote?
To register to vote in California, you must be:
A United States citizen,
A resident of California,
18 years of age or older on Election Day,
Not found by a court to be mentally incompetent, and
Not in prison or in county jail (serving a state prison sentence or serving a term of more than one year in jail for a defined “low-level” felony), or on parole, post-release community supervision, or post-sentencing probation for a felony conviction.
If you have moved since you last voted, you must reregister.
Work’s New Age
Posted in Books, tagged Alameda County Library, Employment, Fremont Main Library, work on Thursday, October 18, 2012| Leave a Comment »
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.
The power of storytelling
Posted in Adult, Alameda County, tagged Paula Abood, Stroytelling on Wednesday, October 10, 2012| Leave a Comment »
There are several psychological reasons why stories are so powerful.
•Stories have always been a primal form of communication. They are timeless links to ancient traditions, legends, archetypes, myths, and symbols. They connect us to a larger self and universal truth.
•Stories are about collaboration and connection. They transcend generations, they engage us through emotions, and they connect us to others. Through stories we share passions, sadness, hardships and joys. We share meaning and purpose. Stories are the common ground that allows people to communicate, overcoming our defenses and our differences. Stories allow us to understand ourselves better and to find our commonality with others.
•Stories are how we think. They are how we make meaning of life. Call them schemas, scripts, cognitive maps, mental models, metaphors, or narratives. Stories are how we explain how things work, how we make decisions, how we justify our decisions, how we persuade others, how we understand our place in the world, create our identities, and define and teach social values.
•Stories provide order. Humans seek certainty and narrative structure is familiar, predictable, and comforting. Within the context of the story arc we can withstand intense emotions because we know that resolution follows the conflict. We can experience with a safety net.
•Stories are how we are wired. Stores take place in the imagination. To the human brain, imagined experiences are processed the same as real experiences. Stories create genuine emotions, presence (the sense of being somewhere), and behavioral responses.
•Stories are the pathway to engaging our right brain and triggering our imagination. By engaging our imagination, we become participants in the narrative. We can step out of our own shoes, see differently, and increase our empathy for others. Through imagination, we tap into creativity that is the foundation of innovation, self-discovery and change. Excerpts from Psychology today
Books on Storytelling @ Library
Creature Features Halloween Show in Niles
Posted in Uncategorized on Tuesday, October 9, 2012| Leave a Comment »
This is the second reconstruction of only four surviving Bob Wilkins Creature
Features shows (opening, wraps, and ending.) It was completely reconstructed to
be a complete show with TV commercials and feature film. John Stanley will host
with Ernie (“Hardware Wars”) Fosselius, and documentary-maker Tom Wyrsch will be there. There will be a huge Halloween free raffle during intermission.
It all starts at 4:00 Sunday, October 28 at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, 37147 Niles Blvd., in Fremont. Call (510) 494-1411 for more information.
Prep and Tips for a Safe Halloween
Posted in Adult, Children, Community, tagged Halloween, halloween costume, trick or treat on Monday, October 8, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Before we know it, Halloween will be upon us. Here are some tips to help you ensure a happy yet safe Halloween.
For Children:
– Don’t trick or treat without parents.
– Cross streets only at corners.
– Never cross the street between parked cars.
– Carry a flashlight or glow stick and/or wear reflective tape.
– Be aware of motor vehicles that may be turning into or backing out of driveways.
– Never go into a stranger’s house.
For Parents:
– Walk with your children or make sure children are accompanied by a trusted adult.
– Make sure trick-or-treaters will be safe when visiting your home. Remove lawn decorations and sprinklers, toys and bicycles or anything that might obstruct your walkway. Provide a well-lit outside entrance to your home. Keep family pets away from trick-or-treaters.
– Explain to children the difference between tricks and vandalism.
– Instruct children NOT to eat treats until they return home and parents have had a chance to inspect those treats.
– Don’t leave candles unattended, try votive candles in your jack o lanterns.
Costume Safety Tips:
– Costumes, masks, beards and wigs should be flame resistant.
– Costumes should be light, bright and clearly visible to motorists; adding reflective tape can help make your child more visible to motorists.
– Make-up is safer than a mask, which can obscure vision. Test the make-up to make sure your child doesn’t have an allergic reaction.
– Avoid over-sized costumes and high-heeled shoes that can cause a child to trip.
– Children should carry a flashlight to easily see and be seen.
– Trick-or-treat bags should not be too large; they can obscure vision or cause a child to trip.
Halloween Hazards:
• Sharp or pointed toy weapons.
• Open flames.
• Dangerous roadways.
• Treacherous “treats” – examine all treats for signs of tampering and choking hazards. Children should not eat homemade treats made by strangers.
• Do not allow children to carve pumpkins alone (special pumpkin cutters for kids are available at your local grocery or Halloween store).
** Consider attending a carnival or festival offered by many schools and faith communities in your area.
Dance and Music at the Library
Posted in Adult, Alameda County, Children, Community, Events, Fremont, Music, Older Adults, Teens, Uncategorized, tagged Anna Poklewski Academy of Music, Bollywood, Classical music, dance, entertainment, Howard Na, Jhankar Live, Music, music prodigy on Thursday, October 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Mark your calendar now: The Fremont Main Library will come alive with free dance and music programs on two Saturday afternoons this month.
On October 13, local Indian music group Jhankar Live performs Bollywood music, both fast-paced and melodious, from 2 to 3:30 p.m.at the Library’s Fukaya Room. The Jhankaris, a group of passionate music enthusiasts, have performed for charitable causes and supported education and artistic development for poor children since 2006.
A classical music concert comes the next Saturday, from 2 to 4 p.m. also at the Fukaya Room. Guest artist and award-winning
pianist Howard Na will headline a concert showcasing keyboard, string and vocal talents from Fremont’s Anna Poklewski Academy of Music and featuring compositions by Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Bussoni, Liszt. A former child prodigy, Mr. Na at age 7 received a full music scholarship from Taiwan’s Department of Education to the Yong-Fu Music Academy. At age 13, he was the youngest student to finish the certified programs at the Preparatory Division of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Mr. Na has won top honors in competitions, including the 2012 Eastman Concerto Competition in Rochester, New York, where he performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (with his own cadenza – an homage to Godowsky) with the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra.
Free tickets will be available at the Information Desk a half hour before each performance.
The Fremont Main Library at 2400 Stevenson Boulevard, Fremont, is wheelchair accessible. The Library will provide an ASL interpreter for any event with at least seven working days notice. Please call 510-745-1401 or TTY 888-663-0660. For your cultural enjoyment and entertainment, come to the Fremont Main Library!