News You Can Use
Funding Notes - Proposition 81 and the Governor's May Budget Revise
Though Proposition 81 failed, the legislature approved the increased amounts of $7 million for PLF and $7 million for TBR in the governor's May revise of the state budget for 2006-07. CLA has the details on its Advocacy/Legislation page. Click on the link for the latest legislative updates.
Workshops near You
...and conferences, presentations, and informative lectures.
Classes from Infopeople and others, as well as conferences, are now pulled together on a single page at http://www.systemref.org/classes.htm
IM for Libraries and Workshop on Library Instruction in the Age of ..Google
If you missed either of these exciting May programs, you can still see the presentations. Links are at the bottom of SRC's "Classes" page at http://www.systemref.org/classes.htm IM for Libraries was perhaps *the* most popular BALIS Workshop ever, with 75 people there. Librarians have since experimented with IM and are pushing their libraries to consider it.
Theory, forecasting, and the ups and downs of implementing new technology were the themes of the CCLI Spring Workshop, which also had a very large turnout. Roy Tennant, one of the speakers, has a fuller explanation of the ideas he presented in the Infopeople webcast archives. Go to his webcast, Leading Edge Technologies, given on January 17, 2006 to hear his talk and see his slides.
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Reference Picks
CalGOLD
CalGOLD - Business Permits Made Simple replaces "Starting a Business." which was a print publication from the System Reference Center. See the page for the State Library's Small Business in a Box grant program - http://smallbiz2.infopeople.org/services/.
On the Small Business site, you can get to CalGOLD by clicking on the link - Information Resources - Law and Requirements.
House Prices - How Much did that Place Sell For?
Who hasn't talked about the price of real estate lately? You know you're not the only one, as you help your patrons chase those numbers. Here are some web sites we like.
Ditech - www.ditech.com Free home appraisals with no personal information required. Suggested by Warren Netz, Millbrae Public Library.
http://www.ditech.com/calculators/appraisal/form.do
Homepages - www.homepages.com Home sale listings and recently sold listings with a zoom feature. Their home appraisal alerts an agent to call you. Also from Warren Netz, Millbrae Public Library.
Zillow - www.zillow.com Free appraisals, a zoom and picture rotation feature and more.
Dataquick Real Estate News - www.dqnews.com You can find median house prices in their zip code charts section. There are charts for the Bay Area, as well as other large U.S. metropolitan area
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Questions and Answers
One of the favorites in the print version of Search was the "question and answer" feature. We've brought this back. Each issue will have a stumper and its story.
The Play's the Thing ...
A man remembered being in a play performed in Berkeley between 1976-1980. He could remember the company, the theater, some scenes and the director, but they were not enough to find the performance.
His offer of $20 on Google Answers brought no nibbles.
Though the director, Angela Paton, appeared in several biography indices, there was no reference to this play.
Our researcher searched the print copies of the Chronicle-Examiner Datebook. She looked in the "On the Town" - "Stage" - "East Bay" sections. She found a listing in the December 4, 1977 issue and went on to find the play in two books at the Berkeley Public Library.
When the patron learned that "his" play had been found, he rushed to the library to check out the books!
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News from our Members
Peninsula Library System Uses Screencasts
Nick Szegda of the Menlo Park library made screencasts to show patrons how to place holds and use the other features of Peninsula Library System's new Innovative Interfaces catalog. They are at the top of the FAQ section of the catalog, under "Tutorials." Nick used Adobe's Captivate. Another program is TechSmith's Camtasia.
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