EveryLibrary: “Statement on Trump’s Attack on Federal Funding for Libraries”

Full Text of an EveryLibrary Statement re: IMLS Funding:

In a new executive order, President Trump has targeted the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the federal agency charged with distributing congressionally approved funds to state libraries and to library, museum, and archives program grant recipients.

The Executive Order states that IMLS must be reduced to its “statutory functions.” It also requires that “non-statutory components and functions …shall be eliminated to the maximum extent…”. We are extremely concerned that the wording of this E.O. could result in cuts to the core functions of IMLS. The Administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have used similar E.O.s to dismantle the other federal agencies. IMLS’s statutory obligations to state libraries include federal funding through the Grants to States program. This core work cannot be disrupted by DOGE.

Congress was very clear in the 2018 Museum and Library Services Act that IMLS is statutorily required (by Sec 9133 of the law) to send federal funding to state libraries under the Grants to States program (under Sec. 9141 of the law). Congress created this federal block grant program to support and extend library services in all the states through the state libraries. While other grant programs within IMLS are discretionary, the Grants to States program is written as a “shall”. This means that Congress enacted the Museum and Library Services Act to strengthen and support state libraries, including their vital work supporting interlibrary loans, statewide databases and collections, and systems of support to individual public, school, and academic libraries.

We are calling on Congress to help safeguard every one of their home district libraries by telling the administration to continue IMLS’s Section 9141 guarantees to state libraries. The states have been consistently fulfilling their obligations under the law, and IMLS must continue its work as well. Likewise, other statutorily obliged programs, including the National Leadership Grants (Sec. 9162) and the Services for Native Americans Program (Sec. 9161) must continue. We believe that the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program (Sec. 9165) and the Museum Services p (Sec. 9173) should remain in place as Congress intended. Taken together, this federal and state ecosystem has served Americans for generations.

We need all Americans to join us in telling Congress to hold the line with the Administration and DOGE and keep these core programs, especially the Grants to States funding, intact. Without this core federal funding for state libraries, we risk losing critical library programs and services in every state. This is the time to make your voice heard for libraries.

Source

See Also: Understanding IMLS’s “Shall” and “May” Language (via EveryLibrary)

Filed under: Academic Libraries, Archives and Special Collections, Funding, Libraries, Management and Leadership, News