Re: connecting /sharing tables across databases

In MSSQL, I have a dozen or so databases that rely on some shared tables
(states, species lists, for example). I put the shared tables in a db
called Common. To query them, mssql allows:

select statename, stateabbrev from common.dbo.statelist S inner join
mytable on S.stateabbrev = mytable.stateabbrev

I'm not asking for PostgreSQL to be more like mssql, but I would like to
share some lookup tables among applications & databases. In looking
through the help, it appears from the "Schemas" help page
(http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/static/ddl-schemas.html) that
PostgreSQL uses a single database per connection (pgAdmin client, web
client). Is there a best practice or recommendation page for how to handle
this sharing of a common lookup table? Or a help page I missed that
discusses it?

Right now I see my options as:
a) put all applications for which I use PostgreSQL into one database, but
different schemas.
b) use a client tool to make a separate connection and create a join
afterwards

Thanks!
Mark