First Amendment, Law, IMLS, & the Library

The Library ensures our First Amendment rights as ensured to U.S. citizens by the Bill of Rights.

The First Amendment:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

However, libraries are not commanded by the U.S. Constitution.
Libraries exist because communities want libraries.
The Federal government provides some support for libraries, but the primary funds for library support come from state and local taxes.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 77.6% of public library income is acquired from local funds, 12.1% from state funds, and 0.9% from federal funds. The remaining income (over 9%) comes from other sources, including user fees, special events, and private fundraising efforts involving foundations, corporations, individual philanthropists, and "Friends of the Library" groups.
http://nces.ed.gov/

In 1956, Congress passed the Library Services Act, providing funds for the provision of library services to unserved areas, primarily rural communities. A 1964 amendment established the Library Services and Construction Act (LSCA) to extend monetary aid to all areas with inadequate library services, including urban areas. In 1996, the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) replaced the expiring LSCA. It focused federal funding efforts on information access through technology and information empowerment through special services, providing federal funds to state library agencies according to population.

LIBRARY SERVICES AND TECHNOLOGY ACT (LSTA)
To promote improvements in library services in all types of libraries in order to better serve the people of the United States.
To facilitate access to resources and in all types of libraries for the purpose of cultivating an educated and informed citizenry; and
To encourage resource sharing among all types of libraries for the purpose of achieving economical and efficient delivery of library services to the public.
The federal administration of the program was then shifted from the Department of Education to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, (IMLS.)
http://www.imls.gov/

The Institute of Museum and Library Services Mission Statement:

"The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute's mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas. The Institute works at the national level and in coordination with state and local organizations to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge; enhance learning and innovation; and support professional development."

Through Grants to State Library Administrative Agencies, the largest of all of its grant programs, IMLS provides funding to state libraries to provide visually and physically impaired Americans with braille materials and recorded audiobooks.

SmashWords, SEO's, Google & the Library

You can pay any amount of money to publish your book on the internet, depending on how much you are willing or able to do yourself.

Amazon, one of the largest publishers of ebooks will make your word document into a PDF file for $300. This is a ridiculously high price for reformating a document.

Even if you don't own the software, you can go to the Adobe site, get a free software trial and make your own PDF's for free.

The premium publishing package at Amazon is over $5,000. and includes cover art, formatting, publishing, and marketing. There are other sites available. I was able to publish my book in paperback for $7.00 at Lulu.com, doing the work myself.

Internet publishers are many, and many are expensive. Smashwords is a highly respected site that offers free digital publishing to authors, and free E-books to readers.

http://www.smashwords.com/about/how_to_publish_on_smashwords

"Smashwords makes it fast, free and easy to publish and distribute your ebook to the world's largest ebook retailers and mobile phone apps. Authors control the pricing, sampling and marketing of their books."

Marketing is crucial to an author's success, but how to market is a matter of hot debate.

I found one SEO--search engine optimization company that argues for paying perhaps thousands of dollars a month for their services. This is what they claimed in their website:

"The easiest way to be 'penny-wise, pound-foolish' is to hire an SEO company or professional who is only going to charge you $50 for a month's link building activities. $50? What a great deal, especially if they promise that this includes blog commenting, content marketing, blog writing, press release distribution and directory submission. Let me be the first to tell you that doing all of that can take 20, 30, 40, even 50+ hours when done right. If someone is only getting paid $50, chances are you aren't going to be getting their best work. They might be employing black hat SEO techniques or outsource their projects overseas. Both of these scenarios are going to cause problems down the road for you and your website."

It is unclear what it is that you are paying for. Even $50. a month is costly. I can't imagine spending thousands.

There is a sucker market on the internet where you can pay too much for too little. Unless you have proof of the SEO company's success with other clients, I would be very wary.

I did become concerned that all our digitized information might be tainted, manipulated by advertisers, and the search engine optimization companies.

According to their website, Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. 
Advertising is  clearly identified as a “Sponsored Link” at Google, and its founders state that ads do not compromise the integrity of their search results.

Google's 'Ten Things' is a very inspiring list of their core values. This is one of the list:
"Democracy on the web works.
Google search works because it relies on the millions of individuals posting links on websites to help determine which other sites offer content of value. We assess the importance of every web page using more than 200 signals and a variety of techniques, including our patented PageRank™ algorithm, which analyzes which sites have been “voted” to be the best sources of information by other pages across the web. As the web gets bigger, this approach actually improves, as each new site is another point of information and another vote to be counted. In the same vein, we are active in open source software development, where innovation takes place through the collective effort of many programmers."   From Google 'Ten Things'
http://www.google.com/about/corporate/company/tenthings.html

I imagined Google as a monster trying to eat the library, but they are entirely dedicated to the search, and have made many useful liasons with the library.

Google Book Search expands through digital scanning partnerships with the libraries of Harvard, Stanford, University of Michigan and Oxford as well as the New York Public Library in 2004.

In 2005, more than 100 libraries on 10 campuses of the University of California join the Google Books Library Project.

Together with LitCam and UNESCO‘s Institute for Lifelong Learning, Google launched the Literacy Project, offering resources for teachers, literacy groups and anyone interested in reading promotion.

Googles history belies manipulation by the search engine optimization companies, so is there anything they offer that the consumer can't do for themselves?

This looks like a helpful site for publishing opportunities. It is possible an author would gain more name recognition by publishing in specialized sites dedicated to a single genre.
http://www.marketlist.com/writers_index/

The Luck of Being Down on Your Luck in America

I have always been drawn to edges, underbellies, silver linings, and contrasts.
I have lived long enough so I can finally see where my high wire dances over perpendicular precipice have led.

I did not feel like I landed until I was 30, and now at 50+, I can see what I have gained by my unexpected life and experiences.

I expected to be a slightly plump, cookie-baking home-maker. I was tossed into the world instead, and have tried on many lives.

I have dined under chandeliers, and sold my plasma to feed my children.

I have been on stage, singing and playing my songs to cheering thousands, and I have been an invisible nothing girl.

I have been a smiling, bobbing waitress, and a recluse.

I have ridden in limosines, and I have ridden a child's bicycle with no seat to work.

I was taught it was more blessed to give than to receive, and found myself on the receiving end, accepting Christmas presents for my children from local churches.

I have had a middle class ego,  astonished to find myself having to apply for food stamps.

I have believed in the power of prayer, and known that many a pious mother before me has had hungry children.

I seek non-violent confrontations, but I would have killed to protect my children.

I am an escapee from domestic violence, a displaced home-maker turned head of household.

I have been on top of the world, and I've been close to dying alone.

I have been painfully shy, and astonishingly bold.

I have been unable to listen. I learned to listen.

I loved the church. I rejected the church and went my own way.

I am reborn, and reborn but not like people say.

One brief fling with another female musician and I'm a lesbian.

Two failed marriages and I'm a double divorcee.

People can't decide if I'm ugly or beautiful, smart or stupid, crazy or sane; I answer to many names.

I have expected justice and been deeply dismayed.

I have believed that doctors and dentists, counselors, psychiatrists, and hospitals cared about me and mine, and I have been invisible, staring in horror at the dollar signs shining in their eyes as they slam the door and lock it.

I have held my cocktail, chatting and bobbing at the snobbiest of snob events with the Virginia Horsey Set, while my best friends back home are a motley crew of characters: scarred-up and perpetually broke, some toothless, some blacker than coal, some gayest of gay, some say some: crazy.

I am compassionate/ruthless, empathic/self-absorbed, an angry dreamer who loves microscopes and telescopes, angles and edges...and maybe just maybe the things I've learned are useful to others.

I've always, always loved to figure out how to replace misery with joy, the changes I would make in society's response to poverty. I know what it feels like to be down on your luck in America.

My Prime Directive Changes...and Changes

The vow to nurture my children, and deliver them safely to adulthood was my prime objective, and fueled my journey through many trials for 30 or so years. While I remain their devoted mother forever, my job is done. They are grown. I have to find new reasons to go on.

Depression is a beast, mania, a constant struggle to channel.
Apparently I suffer delusions, and there is no convincing my doctors otherwise.
But I hear songs no one else hears.
It seems natural to me that I would see a thing here or there that no one else sees.
I can function in this world, but just barely.
I think it is the strain of so much input that sabatages my attempts to join the world in a meaningful way job-wise.
My system goes haywire in the marketplace.
My hearing gets better, my vision gets worse.
Florescent lighting, beeps, and blings, the stares, the summations, the emotions swirling are loud, so loud.
I hate it.
Maybe there is a name for it, but I try not to listen to names, for you can believe your label and maybe think you're sick when you just have different wiring, just a little tricky to handle, even with meds.

So as good as I am at "book-learning," I have never been able to translate what I can do into a "real" job, and have been forced to be one of the working poor, paying my college loans out of my tip money.

My every attempt at a higher paying job began with me bucking myself up and then squishing myself into the part. It never worked, not even once. I've had to accept that I can only be what I am and find the job that can benefit from what I've learned.

My decision to go to Library School was made by scanning the world for a real job where I could fit. I refuse to end my life begging and borrowing from my children, eating turnips and wondering how to pay the light bill. I thought I had a real chance of being able to stay at a job in the library. I could use my B.S. and I could prevent being a burden to my children in the future.

Going to Library School has opened my eyes.
Librarians can work in a wide variety of settings.
You just have to find your niche.