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For many people in the United States, libraries are lifelong fixtures\u2014from getting one\u2019s first library card and listening to librarians read aloud \u201cThe Very Hungry Caterpillar,\u201d to cramming for college exams or checking out a book with advice on raising your first baby.<\/p>\n
But public libraries across the country are currently at risk due to an Executive Order<\/a> by President Donald Trump, which calls for the elimination of the Institute of Museum and Library Services<\/a> (IMLS), a federal agency responsible for nearly $300 million<\/a> dollars in funding for museums and libraries.\u00a0<\/p>\n Conor Moran, the executive director of the Madison Public Library Foundation (MPLF), says that institutions like libraries are left in limbo while they await possible programming cuts.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not the only person in the world saying this, but the hardest part about it is the uncertainty right now,\u201d says Moran, who is responsible for private fundraising on behalf of public libraries throughout Madison, Wisconsin. \u201cThe hardest part eventually will be the lack of funds, but right now it\u2019s the uncertainty.\u201d<\/p>\n Staff at libraries and museums across the country are uncertain if the cuts will even go through. On April 7, the American Library Association (ALA) and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), filed a lawsuit<\/a> in response to the Executive Order. The lawsuit resulted in a temporary restraining order blocking the immediate dismantling of the IMLS\u2014buying time for public libraries and museums as a federal court considers the merit of the case. Despite this victory, ALA President Cindy Hohl calls for continued community support.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now is prime time for every American to show up for our libraries,\u201d Hohl said in a May 1 statement<\/a>, calling on the public to show acts of support for these public institutions such as, \u201curging their Senators and Representatives to sign \u2018Dear Appropriator\u2019 letters in support of federal library funding.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the past fifteen years, IMLS has awarded<\/a> nearly $70 million in grants to Wisconsin museums, libraries, and other institutions, according to the city of Madison. While the MPLF is not currently receiving any funds from the federal agency, it does have a long history<\/a> of grant work using funds from the agency. Prior to Donald Trump\u2019s Executive Order, Moran says, the Madison Public Library was using a multi-year IMLS-funded grant to create tools to help librarians evaluate their current programs.<\/p>\n Although public libraries themselves in Madison are not currently receiving any IMLS funding, partners of the library are, meaning Madison public libraries could be affected in a number of ways, losing services like free Internet access.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the number-two thing that we do as a library system: connect people with the Internet,\u201d Moran says. \u201cSo how do we react and adapt if that\u2019s the kind of thing that ends up going away? Right now, there aren\u2019t any concrete effects that I can respond to. That does not mean that they\u2019re not coming.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite the uncertainty, the Madison Public Library\u2019s 150-year-old downtown location<\/a> still draws a line out the door each morning when it opens, convening unhoused people, students, and other community members eager to utilize the library\u2019s wealth of free resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to Moran, the word \u201cresource\u201d doesn\u2019t even begin to encapsulate all the services that Madison\u2019s public libraries provide to their surrounding communities. \u201c\u2018Resource\u2019 understates it,\u201d Moran says. \u201cI like to say that libraries are a promise we make as a community to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n This promise includes 4,700 free programs each year, Moran says, including educational opportunities for students in the carceral system, pro bono tax preparation services for community members, and even a free clothing mending service every Thursday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n Diligent service to the community is par for the course at public libraries across the country. The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (CLP), established in 1895, provides a wide variety of programs for more than 2.9 million visitors each year. In addition to more basic literary and technological resources, the library offers materials and services for nonprofit organizations<\/a>, online programs for language learning<\/a>, and expansive genealogy and history and collections that<\/a> allow patrons to research their family history. It even offers use of electronic musical instruments such as synthesizers. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cComfortable library spaces in neighborhoods welcome people to read, to think, to learn, to share, and to teach each other,\u201d CLP\u2019s website<\/a> states. \u201cChildren and teens learn and grow; adults exchange ideas, acquire new skills, and expand their understanding; and every person in our community has access to ideas, information, and items\u2014in person or electronically.\u201d<\/p>\n In many cities, libraries have also played a key role in the fight against book banning campaigns, which often target<\/a> literature written by or about people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and women. In 2022, the Brooklyn Public Library established an initiative called Books Unbanned<\/a> in partnership with the Seattle Public Library, the Boston Public Library, the Los Angeles Public Library, and the San Diego Public Library. The initiative was conceived as a response to elected officials, board members, and administrators across the country seeking to censor books in schools and public libraries.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou have the Seattle Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library making a library card available to anyone nationally,\u201d says Moran, \u201cso you could then use their collection and check out books that might have been banned in your neighborhood or your community. That\u2019s incredibly far reaching.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n According to a 2024 report<\/a>, created in collaboration between the Seattle Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library, Books Unbanned has had an extensive reach, garnering virtual cardholders from all fifty U.S. states. The report includes testimonials from cardholders, such as one twenty-two-year-old from North Carolina who said that their public library has been instrumental in \u201cfinding trans and LGBTQ+ information and seeing characters like me when no one in my small, conservative town could openly talk about such things.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In addition to these more specialized services, the vast majority of libraries across the country provide more basic services such as learning programs for children and Internet and computer access.\u00a0<\/p>\n In April, The Progressive<\/em> spoke with patrons of the Madison Public Library, and it was these universal services that most people said they would miss in the face of funding cuts.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was in middle school and high school, we didn\u2019t have computers at my house, so that\u2019s why I went to the public library: to print and use their computers,\u201d says Leaura Manuel, a freshman at the University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison.<\/p>\n Another University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison freshman, Mary Abbe, fondly recalls her childhood local library in Eagan, Minnesota. \u201cMy mom loves the library,\u201d she says. \u201cShe would drop me off there when she went to work and I would stay there all day.\u201d Abbe recalls the library having a 3D printer, green screen room, and groups events like a knitting club in which she participated.\u00a0<\/p>\n Given how many people rely on the immense resources traditionally provided by public libraries,\u00a0 library-lovers see the potential impact of Trump\u2019s Executive Order as high stakes\u2014and their efforts to protect public libraries aren\u2019t falling on deaf ears. In April, lobbying librarians helped persuade Ohio state lawmakers to ensure that the state will increase funding for public libraries<\/a> in the coming year, rather than pursue the budget cuts originally proposed<\/a> in the legislature following the federal library funding cuts.\u00a0<\/p>\n Moran says that the Madison Public Library Foundation experienced an unprecedented increase in donations on Library Giving Day, which took place eighteen days after the signing of Trump\u2019s Executive Order.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRight before Library Giving Day, which was on April 1, we took part in that national push to have people support libraries, and we saw double the amount of money that we raise on a regular year,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople came out in droves to support their library, and what we\u2019re kind of reading into that is, libraries are really important to people, and that remains true, but also that people are willing to support libraries.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the most effective ways to support public libraries also happens to be one of the easiest: showing up and using their resources. \u201cThose numbers really matter when we\u2019re having city budget conversations and they matter when we\u2019re talking to legislators,\u201d Moran says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Moran is confident that in these trying times for many U.S. institutions, community members will rise up to support their local libraries.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a library here before we had electricity, before we had sewers, before we had garbage collection,\u201d Moran says. \u201cThis is something that Madison has stood for for a century and a half\u2014it\u2019s not something that this community is going to stop supporting just because something happened at the federal level.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For many people in the United States, libraries are lifelong fixtures\u2014from getting one\u2019s first library card and listening to librarians read aloud \u201cThe Very Hungry Caterpillar,\u201d to cramming for college exams or checking out a book with advice on raising your first baby. But public libraries across the country are currently at risk due to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":263767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12022],"tags":[18166,16930,13407,48589,26204,94571,5294,77475,3646],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-263766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activist","tag-book-bans","tag-dispatches","tag-importance","tag-librarians","tag-libraries","tag-lily-spanbauer","tag-public","tag-public-service","tag-reading"],"yoast_head":"\n