New Year Greetings

I recently received a mailing from the organization responsible for collecting and maintaining the papers of Emma Goldman, radical political figure, who operated an ice cream parlor in Worcester in the early 1890s. In it they included the following quote:

" I wish you more for the New Year than words can express, Peace of mind and rest of your body, supreme satisfaction in your personal life, and in your work. Much joy and some happyness snatched from a mad and bloodthirsty world".

Emma Goldman, 1939

Misspellings and bad punctuation notwithstanding, these words are as appropriate today as they were in 1939.

Workforce Central Career Centers

When I was in my early twenties (a long time ago) and I lost my job, I walked into the nearest unemployment office and filed a claim. I could also get some leads on potential jobs from the folks who worked there or I could strike out on my own to find a job. Every two weeks I brought back proof to the unemployment office that I was actively seeking employement in order to receive my check. Things have changed! First, the unemployment office is now called a Career Center. Second, while you can still walk into a Career Center to file a claim the government strongly encourages the newly unemployed to file a claim by phone.
File by phone
Call the TeleClaim Center at 1-877-626-6800 if you are calling from the following area codes: 351, 413, 508, 774, and 978.
Call the TeleClaim Center at 617-626-6800 if you are calling from any other area code.

Career Centers now focus mainly on connecting employers with job seekers. Before we list the resources available at a Career Center it's important to know where the Career Centers are located and the cities and towns that are serviced by the individual centers. The Office of Labor has a directory of the Career Centers closest to you with an overview of services, hours and contact information. I have taken a tour of the Worcester Career Center and I'm hoping that there is uniformity throughout the state. In any event, the only requirement for those wishing to use the resources at a Career Center is attendance at a one hour orientation. They have tried to make this as painless as possible by scheduling two orientations each day Monday through Thursday. Once you have completed the orientation here are some of the services and resources available:

• Use of their computers for two hours each day.
• A weekly job list of vacancies and salaries.
• In-house use of a software database called EmployOn which promises to be the largest jobs database in the industry.
• One on one job matching with a Career Center staff person.
• The possibility of a $5000 training grant (must meet eligibility requirements).
• These are some of the free workshops:
  -Resume writing taught by certified resume writers.
  -An introduction to the personal computer.
  -Interviewing techniques.
  -Job searching on the Internet.
  -Myers Briggs testing of personality type.
  -Mock interviews.
  -CORI issues and job searching.
  -Networking how to.

Fee based service:
For a $40 fee there are self-paced and computer based software training services that require 16-24 hours to complete: Outlook 2000; Word 2000; Access; Power Point 2000; and Excel 2000.

Savy Seniors

Seniors are the fastest growing segment of computer users. Those over sixty have become, or are becoming, very computer savy. The want to make the best use of the computers they are purchasing. More importantly, they want to use their time wisely in searching the most relevant and timely websites.
Visit The Worcester Public Library website at http://www.worcpublib.org/. Click on web resources on the left hand side of the page. Then click on the heading"Seniors." What you will discover is the result of a program that was given at the library to provide librarians ideas in serving this population. Topics of importance, agencies, hands-on-tutorials, and some fun sites are listed. By bookmarking this page, it is easy to scroll and quickly pick a topic of concern or interest. Browsing may also prove helpful. We hope that your patrons will find these sites well-organized and useful in assisting those of any age.

Read the NYT and PW Book Review on the Regional Reference Blog for Free

Free NYT and PW RSS feeds have been added to the Regional Reference Blog. You will be able to read the latest book reviews, daily book news, find bestseller lists and preview first chapters of new books. Just visit Regional Reference Blog at http://wplrefblog.blogspot.com/.

Worcester First Night 2008

If your patrons ask for information about Worcester First Night, please point them to http://www.firstnightworcester.org/. When you are there, click on General Info, you will find info on where to buy a button, events map and schedule, and more.
Note: It appears on the map the Worcester Public Library is an event site in the area. However, the YWCA is the site.