20/03/2025
Institute of Museum and Library Services is what made the Great Ape Heart Project possible. It is a phenomenal agency with an exceptionally dedicated staff. Check the links below and make your voice heard!
If you love libraries, now is the time to stand up and protect them! Last Friday, Trump signed yet another executive order, this one ordering the elimination of seven more federal agencies, including ones that focus on libraries, museums, media, and ending homelessness. Along with shutting down the United States Agency for Global Media which runs the 83-year-old Voice of America, the order targets the Institute of Museum and Library Services, an agency that supports libraries, archives and museums in every state. In the fact sheet accommodating the order to decimate federal funding for America's libraries, the administration justifies the destruction of these vital agencies as "{draining] the swamp."
The Institute of Museum and Library Services, which serves as the primary federal funding source for the country's libraries, is a tiny agency staffed by 75 dedicated public servants who love libraries and want to help them flourish. While its total budget is just a blip in the U.S. federal budget -- 0.0046% specifically -- it provides tremendous support to libraries across the country, support which is particularly critical in rural and underserved communities.
Through its competitive grants programs, it helps libraries upgrade infrastructure and expand their collections. It also helps libraries develop community-based initiatives like early literacy and summer reading programs and provides professional development opportunities for librarians nationwide. The IMLS is one of many small federal agencies and programs doing critical work on behalf of the American public that most people don't even know exist... that is, until it's gone and their own local library starts to suffer for its loss.
As the director of one small rural library in Northern Michigan observed, the loss of IMLS will be devastating for a library like hers. "This is much bigger than just our small community. This is going to impact accessibility for the whole state and the region,” says Pam Williams, Director of the Elk Rapids District Library. Along with the loss of resources to help manage the library, such as research and programming supports, the impact on library patrons will be severe. "There will be no Melcat (the state's statewide interlibrary loan system), so what we have on our shelves is what you get," she explains. "Another thing is that all the databases will also be gone. So, anyone who depends on the genealogy or the test prep or the college prep for the job preparations, those will be gone.”
It's essential to call on Congress to take action to protect America's libraries before Tesla CEO Elon Musk sends in his DOGE goon squad to dismantle the IMLS as they have with similar agencies, such as their aggressive takeover of the U.S. Institute of Peace this week during which DOGE brought in multiple law enforcement agencies to gain access to the independent agency "with the force of guns."
To call on your elected officials to stand with America's libraries, you can use the action alert on 5 Calls at https://5calls.org/issue/institute-museum-library-services-imls-ala/
You can also send an email to your elected officials using the American Library Association's action alert at https://app.oneclickpolitics.com/campaign-page?cid=9CyapZUB9sorxFLO4J0c&lang=en
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To visit the IMLS website and learn more about their vital work, visit https://www.imls.gov/
To read about Trump's order gutting seven agencies including IMLS, visit https://wapo.st/4iFCqV6
To read about DOGE's aggressive assault on the U.S. Institute of Peace this week, visit https://wapo.st/4iD6CQK
To read more about Lily Walter's story, visit https://ilovelibraries.org/article/a-lifelong-love-of-books-and-libraries/
To read about the impact on the Northern Michigan libraries, visit https://www.9and10news.com/2025/03/18/doge-cuts-will-be-impacting-northern-michigan-libraries/
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For Mighty Girl books that pay tribute to the wonder of libraries and librarians, visit our blog post "Celebrating a Love of Reading: 35 Mighty Girl Stories about Books, Libraries, and Literacy" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=11656
For several inspiring children's books about librarians who made books more accessible to people in their communities, we recommend "Junia, The Book Mule of Troublesome Creek" for ages 4 to 8 (https://www.amightygirl.com/junia-the-book-mule), "How Anne Carroll Moore Created Libraries for Children" for ages 5 to 9 (https://www.amightygirl.com/miss-moore-thought-otherwise), and "Library On Wheels: Mary Lemist Titcomb and America's First Bookmobile" for ages 8 to 12 (https://www.amightygirl.com/library-on-wheels)
For many books for tweens and teens about girls living in real-life oppressive societies with little respect for freedom of expression, visit our blog post "The Fragility of Freedom: Mighty Girl Books About Life Under Authoritarianism" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=32426
To see more stories from A Mighty Girl, you can sign-up for A Mighty Girl's free weekly email newsletter at https://www.amightygirl.com/forms/newsletter -- and follow us on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/amightygirl.com
