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You are invited to a free seminar on the Public Policy Institute of California’s Statewide Survey. The January Statewide Survey examines Californians’ opinions of Governor Brown’s 2012 budget proposal, attitudes towards raising taxes and cutting programs, and approval ratings of state and federal elected officials. It also looks at residents’ opinions on presidential candidates.
The briefing will take place on Friday, January 27, 2012, from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the CSAC Conference Center, 1020 11th Street, 2nd floor, in Sacramento. Registration begins at 11:45 a.m. Lunch will be provided courtesy of the Public Policy Institute of California. In order to estimate the correct number of lunches, please RSVP by going to the PPIC event website at: http://www.ppic.org/main/event.asp?i=1202 . If you would prefer to RSVP via phone, contact the CRB reception desk at (916) 653-6602.
For additional information regarding CRB services, please contact CRB Acting Director, Brian R. Sala, Ph.D, at (916) 651-8793.
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You are invited to a free seminar on the economic impact of immigration in the United States. UC Davis Professor of Economics Giovanni Peri will present facts and data on immigration in the United States in the last 10 years. In addition, he will discuss a fact-based and labor-market centered approach to immigration.
This briefing will be held on Thursday, January 26, 2012, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the UC Center of Sacramento at 1130 K Street, Room LL3. Lunch will be provided courtesy of the UC Center. To RSVP to this free event, please visit the UC Center event page at http://tinyurl.com/7pvhh3g.
For additional information regarding CRB services, contact CRB Acting Director, Brian R. Sala, Ph.D., at (916) 651-8793.
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You are invited to a screening of the documentary film “Miss Representation,” with special guest Director Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The event is sponsored by The Legislative Women’s Caucus and the California Commission on the Status of Women. The screening will take place on Wednesday, Jan 25, 2012 at 6pm, with a VIP reception at 5 pm at the Crest Theater on 1013 K Street, Sacramento. Please RSVP to bryn.sullivan@sen.ca.gov, bobbie.sardo@sen.ca.gov or by calling California Research Bureau reception desk at (916) 653-6602.
For additional information regarding CRB services, contact CRB Acting Director, Brian R. Sala, Ph.D., at (916) 651-8793.
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You are invited to a seminar on “Untangling the State-Local Fiscal Relationship”. California’s budget crisis has spurred a reconsideration of the roles of government. This event will explore key issues in the state-local relationship today—from the state’s role in providing services to the tools counties need to succeed in their new responsibilities.
Confirmed speakers:
Darrell Steinberg, president pro tem, California State Senate
Connie Conway, minority leader, California State Assembly
Lee Baca, sheriff, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
Mark Baldassare, president and CEO, PPIC
Diane Cummins, special advisor, Office of Governor Jerry Brown
Gary K. Hart, chair, board of directors, PPIC
Mike McGowan, president, California State Association of Counties
Frank Mecca, executive director, County Welfare Directors Association of California
Greg Lucas, chief correspondent, California's Capitol
The two-panel event will take place on Wednesday, January 25, 2012, from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the Magnolia Room at the Sheraton Grand Sacramento, 1230 J Street, with registration beginning at 11:15 a.m. Lunch will be provided courtesy of the Public Policy Institute of California. Please RSVP by January 20th at: http://www.ppic.org/main/event.asp?i=1199 . If you would prefer to RSVP via phone, contact the CRB reception desk at (916) 653-6602.
For additional information regarding California Research Bureau services contact CRB Acting Director, Brian R. Sala, Ph.D., at (916) 651-8793.
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Penguin Group has suspended the availability of download audiobook titles for library purchase across all vendors, according to a message that OverDrive sent to its library partners today.
The OverDrive message says: “This change does not affect any Penguin audiobook titles currently in your library’s catalog. Your library will be able to purchase additional copies of titles released before 11/14/2011. However, titles released after this date and new releases will not be available, per instruction from the publisher.”
“What we’ve shared with our partners is all we know at this time,” said David Burleigh, a spokesperson for OverDrive. OverDrive offers about 40,000 audiobook titles in its US catalog, Burleigh said.
This latest decision comes on top of the policy shift that Penguin announced in November that ended public libraries’ access to new ebook titles from the publisher.
For more, go to
http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2012/01/ebooks/penguin-further-narrows-library-access-suspending-availability-of-audiobook-titles/
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The Douglas County Libraries (Colorado) has taken another interesting step in its program to secure outright ownership of ebooks, keeping intact the same rights that public libraries have always had with print works.
Jamie LaRue, the library’s director, has posted for comment on his blog two working documents that he has written in collaboration with Mary Minow of librarylaw.com that the library is using as the legal framework for its ebook program.
“The idea is to avoid a lot of costly and time-consuming contracts with each publisher,” LaRue said.
The first document is a “Statement for Common Understanding for Purchasing Econtent,” which spells out traditional library rights but within a digital context.
The sister document is addressed to potential publishing partners that may be willing to sell their econtent to the library.
For more, go to
http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2012/01/ebooks/douglas-county-library-erects-legal-framework-for-ebook-purchases-with-assist-from-mary-minow/
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The Census Bureau just released the data for 2010, and California had the 5th lowest number of full-time equivalent state government employees relative to population among all states. California had 110 state employees for every 10,000 residents while Florida had the lowest ratio at 98 and Illinois was second with 102. The U.S. average was 142 state employees per 10,000 residents. California’s ratio of state government employees relative to population was 23% below the national average.
When state and local government employees (including education) are added together, California has the 5th lowest ratio of employees to population.
California had 479 state and local full-time equivalent employees per 10,000 residents in 2010 compared to the national average of 537. Nevada was the state with the lowest ratio (423) followed by Arizona (461), Rhode Island (470) and Pennsylvania (472).
For more, go to
http://ccsce.com/PDF/Numbers-Jan-2012-Where-Does-California-Rank-2010.pdf
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Rachel Yu must be a bright and talented young lady because she is only 16 and already a successful author.
Rachel self publishes through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing Program, and her books can be borrowed through the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.
So, Rachel, at a tender age, has developed a constructive relationship with a company that publishes her books and distributes them to buyers and borrowers. Sale or loan, Rachel makes money, because, on top of royalties from sales, Amazon pays writers every time their book is loaned.
In December, that translated to $1.70 per loan, and for Rachel, that meant 3,647 loans or $6,200.
So, even as public libraries tussle with the criss-cross of debates about ebooks, even as large publishing houses sniff at the idea of public libraries lending ebooks, Amazon has further vexed the library groundwork with this disruptive idea — royalties for borrows.
For more, go to
http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/01/opinion/lj-insider/rachel-yu-and-the-monetization-of-library-loans/
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Sending documents from a PC to a Kindle e-reader just got a little bit easier. That’s because Amazon released a new application called "Send to Kindle" that enables Kindle owners to easily transfer files from their Windows PCs directly to their ebook reader.
Send to Kindle is available to PC users as a free download. Amazon promised that support for Mac is coming soon.
Kindle users have always been able to transfer personal documents to their devices by either emailing them to an address assigned to their Kindle account or attaching the ereader to a computer and dragging the files over. With Send to Kindle, the process is simplified.
For more, go to
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2398892,00.asp
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An anonymous donor has stepped forward to guarantee the final $15 million needed to finish construction on the $185 million central library being erected in downtown San Diego.
In his State of the City address last Wednesday, Mayor Jerry Sanders announced the project was now fully funded, but what he didn’t say was that it was only because of the unnamed individual.
The new library has been under construction since July 2010 after city leaders chose to move forward with it despite still being short $32.5 million needed to build the interior. A private fundraising group promised to raise the money by this month but fell short of their goal so the donor stepped up to guarantee the rest.
For more, go to
http://utsandiego.com/news/2012/jan/12/anonymous-donor-allows-library-project-go-forward/
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Amazon is releasing new data on its Kindle Lending Library, which the e-commerce site says now has over 75,000 books. The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library is a collection of books that Amazon Prime members who own a kindle can borrow once a month, with no due dates.
Amazon recently launched KDP Select, a fund that lets independent authors and publishers make money off of lending. Basically, if a KDP author or publisher chooses to make any of their books exclusive to the Kindle Store for at least 90 days, those books are eligible to be included in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library and can earn a share of the KDP Select fund.
According to the company, customers borrowed nearly 300,000 (295,000 to be exact) KDP Select titles in December alone, and KDP Select has helped grow the total library selection. With the $500,000 December fund, KDP authors have earned $1.70 per borrow. For more, go to http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/12/amazon-kindle-owners-are-borrowing-nearly-300000-electronic-books-a-month/
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Charitable donations from mobile phones have grown more common in recent years. Two thirds (64%) of American adults now use text messaging, and 9% have texted a charitable donation from their mobile phone. Three quarters of these donors (73%) contributed using their phones on the same day they heard about the campaign, and a similar number (76%) say that they typically make text message donations without conducting much in-depth research beforehand. Yet while their initial contribution often involved little deliberation, 43% of these donors encouraged their friends or family members to give to the campaign as well. For more, read the full Pew Internet and American Life report at http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/MobileGiving.aspx
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Book Lust Rediscoveries is a series devoted to reprinting some of the best (and now out of print) novels originally published between 1960-2000. Each book is personally selected by Nancy Pearl and includes an introduction by her, as well as discussion questions for book groups and a list of recommended further reading.
For more, go to
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000764551
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