Library supporters are rallying to the defense of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, warning that the Trump administration’s efforts to pare back or even eliminate the agency will damage institutions across the country and potentially violate the law.
The independent agency, created in 1996, is the federal government’s main source of support for the nation’s libraries, museums and archives, with a budget of roughly $290 million. Its largest program, totaling roughly $160 million, goes directly to state library agencies.
The agency was one of seven named in a March 14 executive order titled “Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy,” which ordered that they be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.” Last week, Keith E. Sonderling, the recently confirmed deputy secretary of labor, was sworn in as acting director, replacing Cyndee Landrum, a career library professional.
Mr. Sonderling visited the agency’s office on Thursday with a small team, including at least one staff member of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, who was given an office and access to the agency’s computer systems, according to an employee who was present. After leaving, Mr. Sonderling issued a statement promising to move the agency “in lock step with this administration to enhance and foster innovation.”
“We will revitalize I.M.L.S. and restore focus on patriotism, ensuring we preserve our country’s core values, promote American exceptionalism and cultivate love of country in future generations,” Mr. Sonderling said.
Even before the visit, more than dozen library, museum and scholarly groups had issued statements expressing alarm at the March 14 order, which the American Library Association called “shortsighted” and an “assault.”
“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,” it said.
And on Monday, the agency’s 19-member advisory board sent a letter to Mr. Sonderling, stating that a number of its programs, including its grants to state library agencies and its support for Native American library services, had been established by statute so cannot be ended without the approval of Congress.
“We remain fully committed to fulfilling our statutory role as an advisor to you as acting director and to supporting the lawful and effective operation of the Institute,” the board said.
The I.M.L.S., while little known to the public, has a larger budget than both the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities. It was created in 1996, and has been reauthorized several times, most recently in 2018, in bipartisan legislation signed by Mr. Trump.
The agency, which has roughly 70 employees, provides funding to libraries and museums in every state and territory, often to support essential but unglamorous back-office activities like cataloging and database management, which often struggle to attract private philanthropic support.
Its largest program, known as Grants to States, delivers roughly $160 million annually to state library agencies, which then distribute it for various statewide or individual projects. The agency also provides competitive grants directly to institutions of all sizes and types.
Recent grants have included $250,000 to the Seattle Public Library to support teen mental health; $150,000 to the University of South Florida to develop library resources for autistic patrons; and $246,000 to the New York Public Library to develop curriculum materials based on the collections at its Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
The agency also supports small, lesser-known institutions, like the Canterbury Shaker Village in New Hampshire, which recently received a three-year, $213,000 grant to inventory the more than 40,000 items in its collection, including a cache of early-19th-century letters recently discovered hidden under an attic roof.
“We have I.M.L.S. to thank for giving us the means to hire curators and the dedicated time to discover, through inventory, new aspects of Shaker life that we can share with the public,” Shirley Wajda, the curator of collections, said in an email.
Among the institute’s prominent supporters over the years is a former first lady, Laura Bush, herself a former school librarian. A grant program named for her, the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarians Program, supports the recruitment and training of librarians, including those from “diverse and underrepresented” communities. (A spokesman for Mrs. Bush declined to comment.)
The extent of any cuts at the agency, and potential legal challenges to them, remain unclear. But Paula Krebs, the president of the National Humanities Alliance, an umbrella group of more than 250 universities and cultural organizations, said the move was part of the administration’s “larger attack on education,” including an executive order aimed at shuttering the Department of Education.
Museums and libraries, Ms. Krebs said, are the main places where members of the public engage in lifelong learning, outside of any formal school.
“I worry this is an attack on the idea that you should have an educated electorate,” she said. “It’s just terrifying.”
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