Letter to the editor: Library cuts starting at the White House 

Twenty days. It only took twenty days. As I am writing this letter, it has been exactly twenty days since President Trump issued an executive order on March 14^th, to dismantle a small federal agency known as IMLS. IMLS is the Institute for Museum and Library Services. It is a tiny cog in the larger mechanism of the United States government. There are around 75 employees. Its budget is less than 0.005% of the federal government. In 2024, IMLS awarded $266.7 million to libraries and museums to support programs for early literacy, broadband access, preserve historical collections, and workforce development. 

You may wonder how this matters to a small, rural library like Washington County Public Library. Surely, there can’t be that much of an impact from IMLS. There is. IMLS gives out money to states through their Grant to States program. In 2024, Florida’s share was over 9.5 million dollars. A large chunk of that is kept by the State of Florida to subsidize programs and services for all the libraries in the state. Washington County participates in many of those programs and services. Summer read programs for kids, Florida Electronic Library (48 research databases to answer any question), interlibrary loan that allows us to borrow a book from another library in the state. All of this is paid for by federal dollars. 

Then there is the money that goes to our multi-type library cooperative, MLC. There are five across the state. Our local MLC is called the Panhandle Library Access Network or PLAN as we affectionately call it. It has 3 employees and covers a region from Pensacola to Tallahassee. PLAN is the resource that makes good librarians great. It is our continuing education resource. Library staff learn about everything from cybersecurity to customer service in face-to-face trainings, self-paced digital courses, and webinars. The library received an email today. Due to the uncertainty of whether or not, they will receive their funds this year, all future trainings have been postponed. There will be no educational webinars to listen to from our desks and no PLAN Tech Day Conference to help us learn about new technology in libraries. 

Twenty days for a federal action to have an effect on a small town library to provide services. National Library Week is April 6^th-12^th. It is a time when we celebrate libraries and all we do. There will not be much celebrating. Instead, we will be focusing on worst case scenario of what services the library will lose if there is no federal funding for libraries. 

Our one ask of all that read this letter is to please call or email your elected officials in Congress. Not once or even twice but every week or every day if possible. Please let them know that your library is important to you and to protect IMLS. A tiny agency that does great things for libraries. 

Sincerely,

Renae Rountree

Washington County Public Library Director