Hitting Home (updated 4/9/2025)

If the ousting of Institute of Museum and Library Services staff wasn’t enough, a subsequent Executive Order has now terminated all forthcoming grants made to state libraries. The cancellation of these funds (which were approved by Congress last year) creates a massive shortfall for libraries and their users across the country.

I always talk about local impact – how you need to find a way to make an issue speak to a person’s immediate needs. What we have here is a horrible case study in this phenomenon.

I wanted to see how this funding cut is going to impact my current home state of Pennsylvania¹yeah, yeah, I know it’s a Commonwealth, don’t at me.. Taking a page from Colorado’s report, I spent a little time digging into the most recent dataset tracking IMLS funding for PA. That year is 2023, and it’s viewable (for now, at least) at the IMLS website²In the event that this link stops working, I’ve saved a copy of the report..

Using this data alone – excluding other federal grants – you can see the clear impact of what this funding brings to the table, and how the Office of Commonwealth Libraries uses the money to create enormous economies of scale. I turned the fact sheet into the following infographic:

In making this (also available as a PDF), I’m hoping to have a clear breakdown of what will be lost without this funding. Even with the existing fund matches coming from state and local sources, it’s going to be close to impossible to replicate the group purchasing power that comes with the State Library. Having something that can illustrate the issue in simple terms can start a conversation – which hopefully can lead to further grassroots action.

The 2025 IMLS grant to PA would have contributed $5.9 million to statewide library services. Clawing back what was contractually obligated to the state is going to a massive effort – not just in Pennsylvania, but across the country.

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Update 4/9/2025: We’re starting to see other states assemble other sheets, or make use of documents assembled for the recent Library Legislative Day in DC. With Take Action For Libraries Day occurring tomorrow, I’m going to gather the resources I’ve found on this page. You can see a variety of approaches – infographics, op-ed pieces, talking points, and more.

Comment or message me if you have others you’d like to see on the list. I’ll take whatever you have, but I’m particularly interested in materials that spell out what states recieve from IMLS and how that money is distributed.

As always, look to ALA and EveryLibrary for additional news and advocacy guidance.

• Alaska (op-ed from AK Library Associaiton president Rachel Nash and Museums Alasks president Dixie Clough; archived from Anchorage Daily News)
• California (a tip of the hat to Becky Yoose)
• Colorado (Library Research Service)
• Connecticut (CT State Library – Division of Library Development)
• Delaware (DE Library Association)
• Hawai’i (HI State Library via Friends of the Library of Hawai’i)
• Illinois (IL Library Association)
• Indiana (IN Library Federation)
• Iowa (IA Library Association)
• Kansas (KS State Library, see also statements from Kansas City and Johnson County libraries)
• Massachusetts (MA Board of Library Comissioners)
• Maine (ME Library Association)
• Michigan (MI Library Association)
• Minnesota (MN Library Association)
• Montana (MT Library Association)
• Nevada (NV Library Association)
• New Jersey (NJ Library Association)
• New Mexico (NM Library Association)
• New York (NY Library Association)
• Oregon (State Library of Oregon)
• Rhode Island (RI Library Association)
• South Dakota (SD Library Association)
• Tennessee (TN Nonprofit Network)
• Texas (TX Library Association)
• Utah (UT Library Association)
• Vermont (VT Library Association)
• Virginia (Library of VA)
• Washington (via Seattle and King County libraries)
• West Virginia (Brooke County Public Libraries)