On March 14, President Trump issued an executive order cutting funds for multiple government agencies, including the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). In his executive order, Trump stated that the agency should “be eliminated to the maximum extent of the law.” For the IMLS, this means that the agency will experience budget cuts to its funding.
The order uses the phrase “maximum extent of the law” because eliminating the IMLS would violate the law that the agency was founded on. The IMLS was founded in 1996 by The Museum and Library Services Act (MLSA), which authorized funding for the institute for libraries and museums. The MLSA has been reauthorized several times, with new additions to the act; the most recent authorization was on Dec. 31, 2018, by Congress and President Trump.
Trump’s most recent executive order still has an air of uncertainty surrounding it, but cutting essential services such as public libraries through the IMLS’s funding has consequences that will resonate throughout the nation.
How Budget Cuts Will Affect Libraries
Federal funding is extremely important to public libraries in the U.S.; without it, the essential services public libraries provide are at risk. The IMLS provides funding for grants, which are then distributed to public libraries to fund the services they offer.
The American Library Association (ALA), in their Frequently Asked Questions article on their website, stated that “library funding draws less than 0.003 percent of the annual federal budget,” and that the IMLS’ possible dissolution would be “perilous for the millions of Americans who rely on our public, school, academic, and special libraries.”
In 2024, the IMLS budget was $294.8 million, and more than $211 million was distributed to library services through the Library Services Technology Act (LSTA), which is the main source of federal funding for public libraries in the United States.
The cuts to IMLS funding not only affect public libraries but also the employees who work for the IMLS. By eliminating funding for the IMLS, Trump’s order may eliminate the agency through IMLS’s staffing. This may result in a large-scale loss of employment for the IMLS’s workers, which means that Trump’s executive order will extend beyond American libraries.
What your library can do for you
You can check out a wide variety of things from a public library: books, audiobooks, magazines, ebooks, special-print books with large print or braille, DVDs, CDs, and even digital movies and shows through platforms like Kanopy. Leon County Library, the public library near FSU’s campus, also offers a “Library of Things,” which has items like karaoke systems, portable DVD players, vacuums, and board games that you can check out for free.
Libraries also provide free Internet and computers that anyone in a community can access, which is pertinent in a world where almost everything is online, as well as after-school programs for children, lectures, summer reading programs, tutoring, and even more.
The best way to support your public library is by getting a library card. No matter how often you plan to go to your library, getting a library card is free, and you can do it online. FSU students who don’t permanently live in Tallahassee can also still get a library card; on LeRoy Collins’ website, you can fill out their application, and the library is a 20-minute walk from campus, where you can pick it up. The only caveat, though, is that you have to pull up the “addresses” tab on your MyFSU website and show an employee your FSU address to prove you live on campus. However, you can also apply for a card to use digitally on platforms like Kanopy and apps like Libby.
While I do prefer to buy copies of my books, you can always check out a copy of a book from your local library before spending money on a novel. Bookstores and libraries are both amazing, and there’s room for both within a community! Getting a library card supports your library by showing that a community cares for its library and uses the resources it provides.
National Library Week
To celebrate National Library Week, which was April 6-12, the ALA published their “State of America’s Libraries: A Snapshot of 2024” report. The biggest topic that the report covers is the current state of censorship in American libraries and how libraries and their librarians are fighting back.
The report included the ALA’s “Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2024,” which features recurring titles such as All Boys Aren’t Blue, which is No. 1, Gender Queer: A Memoir, in the No. 2 spot, and The Bluest Eye and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which are tied for spot No. 3 and No. 4.
The ALA reported that across “821 attempts to censor library materials and services,” they tracked “2,452 unique titles” that were targeted in 2024. This is a notable decrease from 2023, which tracked 4,240 unique titles; however, the ALA attributes this to causes such as underreporting of book challenges, censorship by exclusion, or legislative restrictions.
“Censorship by exclusion” is when librarians may not purchase a book for a library or prematurely remove it from their library in fear of controversy or a book challenge. “Legislative restrictions” are state or local restrictions that may bar certain content or books from a library, so book challenges aren’t being reported because the titles are already excluded or have already been removed.
Book challenges have become another avenue for the censorship of diversity in the U.S., with the ALA’s list featuring dominantly novels about LGBTQ+ and POC characters or topics about race, gender, and sexuality.
More than just libraries
Censorship extends outside of public libraries and into other libraries and institutions as well. For example, the U.S. Naval Academy’s library removed 381 books from their shelves after Trump’s executive order banning DEI policies in federal agencies. Some of the books removed included Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir, which was No. 2 on the ALA’s 2024 banned books list, and Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give.
Several universities have also had their research budgets cut due to Trump’s DEI policies; at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), several research grants for studies involving “LGBTQ+ issues, gender identity and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)” were suspended.
These are two instances of censorship and exclusion in the current state of America’s political climate. Trump’s executive order cutting funding for the IMLS sparks even more uncertainty and is another example of how his presidency has affected vital programs in the U.S.
National Library Week in April is another reminder to support our public libraries. Public libraries are the core foundations of the communities they serve, and without funding, the services that public libraries provide are at risk. Get a library card, check out books and other materials, and show up for your library: show that public libraries matter!
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