Fed policy changes could impact libraries

The funding stream that supplies federal funding to local library systems — providing money for capital improvements, cultural preservation, internet access and other initiatives — has been slowed to a trickle under a recent executive order. 

And area library directors are growing concerned.

“Libraries are constantly doing more with less,” Mattituck-Laurel Library director Shauna Scholl said April 1. “But there will come a point when we simply won’t be able to continue doing so, especially if the state and federal programs that support us locally are eroded.”

Executive order

An executive order signed March 14 by President Donald Trump called for the reduction of the Institute of Museum and Library Services — an independent government agency, created in 1996, which is the primary source of support for the nation’s museums and libraries. The president’s order deemed the institute an “unnecessary” element of the federal government. 

The institute’s 2024 fiscal year budget was nearly $295 million, with roughly $211 million accounting for the Office of Library Services. Approximately $8.1 million of that funding is funneled through the New York State Library in Albany by the institute’s Grants to States Program — a $180 million budget line in 2024. 

On April 3, the nonprofit organization known as the American Library Association reported that “several states received written notification from IMLS Acting Director Keith Sonderling that their grants were cancelled.” As of 7 p.m. April 3, California, Connecticut and Washington were the only states that received notice of grant cancellation.

The monies allocated by IMLS to New York have helped support the state’s 7,000 local libraries, 72 library systems and the state library itself. These funds help cover costs for library resources, construction aid, technical assistance, administration of legislative and discretionary grant programs, oversight of trustee education and public librarian certification processing, among other initiatives. 

Ms. Scholl said while the library is funded primarily through local taxes, the support and services it receives through the federally funded state library “are now at immediate risk.”

Crucial resources like construction aid, access to online databases and coordination of summer reading programs are financed in part by federal funding funneled through the state, according to both Ms. Scholl and Cutchogue-New Suffolk Free Library director Rosemary Winters. 

Floyd Memorial Library director Ellen Nasto, Southold Free Library Caroline MacArthur, North Shore Public Library director Laura Hawrey and Riverhead Free Library director Kerrie McMullen-Smith echoed these concerns. Ms. Hawrey described the uncertainty of federal funding as a “gnawing concern” for local libraries.

The executive order called for the elimination of the institute’s “non-statutory components and functions” as well as reduction of “the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law.” 

Heads of each of the various agencies impacted by the order were required to submit a report to Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russel Vought confirming compliance with the order and explaining which functions of their entity are “statutorily required and to what extent.” 

The IMLS media contact did not respond to requests for comment about what plans the agency has to conform with the executive order. 

Suffolk Cooperative Library System 

More than $5 million of federal funding from the IMLS trickles down to local libraries in Suffolk County through the Suffolk Cooperative Library System, which offers a variety of support services to its member libraries throughout the county with an annual budget of $20 million. 

SCLS helps support the county’s local libraries by coordinating distribution of shared services like Libby — a mobile app that gives library patrons access to millions of ebooks and audiobooks, which draws from a $7 million budget line. SCLS director Kevin Verbesey said 3.6 million items were borrowed from Libby across Suffolk County in 2024.

The library system also coordinates internet bandwidth services for local libraries and a countywide “lending library” service for books and events. 

“There’s a wealth of different things that we work at the cooperative level,” Mr. Verbesey said in a phone interview Friday, March 28. “All of which are at some level of risk with the loss of state support and federal support.”

Federal E-rate program

The executive order affecting the IMLS is one of several things Mr. Verbesey is concerned will have a “deep and troubling impact on libraries and, quite frankly, on all public services.” A bigger issue, he believes, are efforts to upend the $4 billion federal E-rate program that helps schools and libraries offset the costs of internet bandwidth. 

The program “was authorized by Congress as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and created by the Federal Communications Commission in 1997,” according to the System for Award Management website. 

The effort to undercut the E-rate program is being spearheaded by Washington-based conservative advocacy group Consumers’ Research in U.S. Supreme Court. Its concern is that, “the Universal Services Administration Company makes quarterly recommendations to the FCC for how much telecommunications companies must contribute to the fund,” and that the FCC effectively “rubberstamps the recommendations,” according to a March 26 Education Week report.

The U.S. Supreme Court “signaled that it is unlikely to upend” the program, the report noted, with Justice Samuel Alito Jr. questioning “the broader impact of a sweeping decision [to undo] the program.”

Across Long Island, roughly $30 million helps ensure access to stable, high-speed internet. Mattituck-Laurel Library receives roughly $5,000 a year from the E-rate program and , depending on the program’s fate, could have to find the money elsewhere in its budget. 

“[The E-rate program] obviously makes sense from an education, economic development and personal enrichment [perspective],” Mr. Verbesey said. “But it’s also critical to public safety. [Schools and libraries] are made of cement and steel … [where] cellular service doesn’t work as well. So without these internet connections, it’s hard to contact the outside world.”

When libraries aren’t able to provide free access to information, Mr. Verbesey added, they will have to turn to private sources “which will put a strain on local library budgets.”

“In general, government thrives on stability,” Mr. Verbesey said. “And when somebody commits to giving you funding and you put it into your budget for the next year — the expectation is it will come to you so you can undertake your plans.

“When all of a sudden… somebody changes their decisions on things that have already been set in stone — or at least set in the law — it just makes it very difficult to function,” he said.

Area library directors urged residents to reach out to their federal representatives and let them know what public services are important to them.

“That’s really the only way that a message is going to be sent,” he said. 

“If you love your library, advocate for what you love,” Ms. Winters said.