On March 14, President Trump issued an executive order to dismantle the only federal agency dedicated to funding library services, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which comprises about 0.003% of the federal budget. Libraries are one of the only free places people can access information; the attack on libraries and museums is a direct attack on education and information access. Millions of people rely every day on library services like book clubs, inter-library loans, senior outreach, homebound deliveries, and more that are supported by IMLS.
In Illinois IMLS provides an average of $5.6 million annually to over 1,700 libraries, mostly to support inter-library loan services. If libraries had purchased the 11.5 million items delivered through inter-library loan programs, they would have paid more than $200 million. Read more in the Illinois Libraries Agencies of Impact Study or the April 28th Chicago Tribune article.
Raising our voices to stop these cuts and share the impact these funding cuts will have on our information systems is vital, here are some tools to help: