Save the Institute of Museum and Library Services!

Call Your House Member

Thursday, March 27, 2025

Yesterday, a bipartisan group of senators—Jack Reed, Kirsten Gillibrand, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski—sent a letter to the new director of the IMLS. These senators are the co-authors of the last act that reauthorized IMLS. The letter urges Sonderling to continue IMLS’s mission to engage with and support libraries and museums, as Congress intended when it created the agency. Read the letter here.

At the same time as the letter above was being distributed, Representatives Dina Titus (NV-01) and Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01) began circulating a letter for other members of the House of Representatives to sign onto asking the Administration to reconsider the executive order that guts the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

ACTION STEP: TODAY, please CALL your members of the House of Representatives to ask them to sign onto the letter from Representatives Titus and Bonamici. The deadline for members of Congress to sign onto the letter is end of day Friday, March 28 so calling will be the best option given the short turnaround time.

Click to Find your Representative's phone number

Here is a draft script for the call:

Hello. My name is {_____} and I live in {city/town}. I work for (or am a patron of) the {insert name of your library} located in {name of city/town}.

I am calling to ask Rep. {____} to sign onto the Dear Colleague letter being circulated by Representatives Titus and Bonamici asking the Administration to reconsider the executive order that guts the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The deadline for members to sign onto the letter is end of day Friday, March 28.

Here in Michigan, the Michigan Electronic Library - our interlibrary loan system and databases that support our school, university and public libraries will be directly and adversely affected and dismantled if the IMLS is eliminated. {Talk about how IMLS is important to your library and the community your library serves. Support received from IMLS, how many people in the community might be impacted, economic benefit, etc.}

Thank you for your time.

Joint Statement on IMLS from Michigan Libraries, Museums, and Archives

Tuesday, March 18, 2025

View the Statement

On March 14, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order (EO) that adversely affects the only federal agency that provides resources to our nation’s libraries, museums, and archives. The EO “Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy” directs the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to eliminate non-statutory programs and reduce its functions and personnel to the minimum required by law. For IMLS, this would mean a dramatic reduction in its scope and capacity to support our nation's cultural institutions. Libraries and museums across the country will feel the effects of these cuts, particularly in areas reliant on discretionary funding and special initiatives.

Michigan receives modest federal funding from IMLS, but our 397 public library systems, 87 academic libraries, nearly 3,000 school libraries, 650 museums, and hundreds of historical organizations pride themselves on using these resources efficiently and innovatively to deliver outstanding programs and services. The changes to IMLS ordered in the EO would be devastating to the cultural and literary landscape enjoyed by all Michigan residents.

What is at stake if IMLS reduces its workforce and dismantles programming, funding, and services to our libraries, museums, and archives?

Close to $2.25 million/year in individual grants to our libraries, and an additional $1.77 million/year for our museums and archives could be affected.

In addition, the Library of Michigan may be adversely affected if the $4.78 million Grants to States were to cease including:

• the Michigan Electronic Library (MeL and MeLCat) – a centralized catalog and resource-sharing service (inter-library loan) created to lend and share materials among all types of libraries in Michigan
• MeL databases that are used extensively by our academic and school libraries
• travel stipends for library staff to attend professional development opportunities to stay current with trends that affect the profession
• funding for cohorts on financial sustainability, digital literacy, artificial intelligence, and public library management
• excellent training and educational opportunities for all library workers through participation in Niche Academy offerings

We strongly support continued funding and staffing and implore President Trump to rescind this Executive Order. Our goal is to ensure that the IMLS continues to fund worthy and essential library, museum, and archival programs that benefit Michigan communities well into the future.

In Fiscal Year 2024, the government spent $6.75 trillion, exceeding its revenue and resulting in a deficit. While the stated purpose of the EO is to reduce bureaucracy and waste, it is unreasonable to target the federal funding allocated to libraries and museums that represents just a tiny fraction – approximately 0.0043% in FY 2024 – of the federal budget. This minimal investment supports institutions that are vital to education, cultural preservation, and community enrichment.

While funding for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2025 (ending Sept. 2025) has been appropriated to the IMLS in the newly approved Continuing Resolution, we have no guarantees of funding for IMLS in the Fiscal Year 2026 budget.

It is time to take a stand and speak up today by calling, writing, emailing, visiting, or sending a letter to your federal elected officials. We encourage you to use one of the links below that have been set up by various national organizations.

Contact your legislators and tell them to continue fully funding IMLS – both discretionary programs and those explicitly mandated by law. Don’t forget that your communication will be stronger by adding your own words, and how this will affect you, your cultural institution, and your community.

American Library Association: https://app.oneclickpolitics.com/campaign-page?cid=9CyapZUB9sorxFLO4J0c

EveryLibrary: https://action.everylibrary.org/saveimls2025

American Association for State and Local History: https://www.congressweb.com/aam/94/

American Alliance of Museums: https://www.congressweb.com/aam/95/

Collectively, we the undersigned, stand together and call on all Michiganders who value reading, learning, history, and enrichment to take a stand in support of our libraries, museums, and archives. We urge President Trump to rescind the EO targeting IMLS and implore Congress to continue fully funding IMLS at levels that protect both discretionary and statutory programs.

Sincerely,

Deborah E. Mikula
Executive Director, Michigan Library Association

Steven Bowers
President, Library Cooperatives of Michigan

Christine Beachler
President, Michigan Association of School Librarians

Mies Martin
President, Michigan Academic Library Association

Lisa Craig Brisson
Executive Director, Michigan Museums Association

Elizabeth Nicholson Green
President, Michigan Archival Association

Larry J. Wagenaar
Executive Director and CEO, Historical Society of Michigan