ALA statement on White House assault on the Institute of Museum and Library Services

WASHINGTON – An executive order issued by the Trump administration on Friday night, March 14, calls for the elimination of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the nation’s only federal agency for America’s libraries. The following statement was made by the American Library Association:

Americans have loved and relied on public, school and academic libraries for generations. By eliminating the only federal agency dedicated to funding library services, the Trump administration’s executive order is cutting off at the knees the most beloved and trusted of American institutions and the staff and services they offer:

• Early literacy development and grade-level reading programs
• Summer reading programs for kids 
• High-speed internet access
• Employment assistance for job seekers 
• Braille and talking books for people with visual impairments
• Homework and research resources for students and faculty
• Veterans’ telehealth spaces equipped with technology and staff support
• STEM programs, simulation equipment and training for workforce development
• Small business support for budding entrepreneurs

To dismiss some 75 committed workers and mission of an agency that advances opportunity and learning is to dismiss the aspirations and everyday needs of millions of Americans. And those who will feel that loss most keenly live in rural communities. 

As seedbeds of literacy and innovation, our nation’s 125,000 public, school, academic and special libraries deserve more, not less support. Libraries of all types translate 0.003% of the federal budget into programs and services used in more than 1.2 billion in-person patron visits every year, and many more virtual visits.

ALA implores President Trump to reconsider this short-sighted decision. We encourage U.S. Congressmembers, Senators and decision makers at every level of government to visit the libraries that serve their constituents and urge the White House to spare the modest federal funding for America’s libraries. And we call on all Americans who value reading, learning, and enrichment to reach out to their elected leaders and Show Up For Our Libraries at library and school meetings, town halls, and everywhere decisions are made about libraries.

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The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is an independent federal agency that supports libraries and museums in all 50 states and U.S. territories through grantmaking, research and policy development. IMLS administers both federal grants to states, which determine how funds are spent, and discretionary grants to individual library entities.

EveryLibrary Statement on Trump's Attack on Federal Funding for Libraries

“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 clear in the 2018 Museum and Library Services Act that IMLS is statutorily required by Sec 9133 to send federal funding to state libraries under the Grants to States program (Sec. 9141).

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 consistently fulfilled 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), the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities (§9102), and IMLS's critical data collection and reporting role (Sec 9108) must continue. We believe that the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program (Sec. 9165), the Museum Services Program (Sec. 9173), and the 21st Century Museum Professional Program (Sec 9175) 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.