eBook & eAudiobook Help- Saturdays 10:30 a.m. -12:30 p.m. at Fremont Main

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!!

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Halloween is Coming!

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!

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top ten! (fiction)

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)

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Register to Vote — Today is the deadline!

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.

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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.

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The power of storytelling

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

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Creature Features Halloween Show in Niles

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.

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