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There are 9,000 public libraries in the United States, excluding branches and bookmobiles. About two-thirds are in rural areas or towns according to federal data. For years, the Institute of Museum and Library Services has supported them, but cuts by the Trump administration could jeopardize the future of rural libraries in particular. Emily Hayes with member station Illinois Public Media reports.
EMILY HAYES, BYLINE: Greenup is a small town in Central Illinois. The township's public library is basically one large room.
VICKI PIERCE: You're welcome to take a look round...
HAYES: Yeah.
PIERCE: ...Or I can walk you through.
HAYES: Vicki Pierce is the circulation clerk.
PIERCE: We've divided our children, our adults, but our movies are here.
HAYES: Pierce has worked here for eight years after retiring as an English teacher. She's one of three part-time employees.
PIERCE: We're a small-town library, so really small budget. And honestly, I'm not sure how we manage to stay open.
HAYES: Part of how they stay open is through grants from the independent federal agency the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Before the pandemic, the federal government covered around 5% of Greenup library's operating costs. Kate McDowell is a professor at the University of Illinois School of Information Sciences. She says the IMLS is a very small agency...
KATE MCDOWELL: That has impacts on almost every community in the whole of the United States and territories.
HAYES: Public libraries get most of their funding from county and city taxes. IMLS distributes the majority of federal library funds. McDowell says the grants vary year to year and are often small, but they help libraries try new things.
MCDOWELL: What the IMLS funds is not just the subsistence of libraries, although that's there too - it's their future.
HAYES: IMLS gave out $267 million last year to libraries and museums. That's 3,000th of a percent of federal spending. But the future of that funding is in doubt. In March, almost all of the IMLS staff were put on administrative leave. In an executive order, President Trump claimed the move would reduce unnecessary bureaucracy. Greenup isn't expecting any federal money this year, and Pierce says the library is financially cautious.
PIERCE: We squeeze every penny three or four or five times to get the most out of it.
HAYES: And Pierce says the idea of taking more money away from libraries sickens her. The American Library Association says that's been happening nationwide to libraries and museums receiving IMLS grants.
(SOUNDBITE OF TELEPHONE RINGING)
PIERCE: Greenup Library, this is Vicki.
HAYES: Pierce picks up the phone and talks to an elderly patron...
PIERCE: Yes.
HAYES: ...Who can't make it to the library.
PIERCE: Yes. Do you want me to check it out and bring it by?
HAYES: Pierce says she wants people to use the library, so she's happy to go out of her way. Meanwhile, in another section of the library, Shawna Ridgely is going through a box of books that are part of the library's spring sale. She and her mother were both librarians, and Ridgely says her mom instilled both a love of reading in her and a love for libraries.
SHAWNA RIDGELY: As a parent, you can go in, and you can say yes. So if the kid wants to have 10 books to take home, you can say yes, and it's not going to cost you anything.
HAYES: She's less certain about what the Trump administration should or should not do when it comes to providing grants for libraries. Still, she sees the value in cutting government spending.
RIDGELY: I'm a very budget-oriented person, so the fact that we are trillions of dollars in debt makes me ill.
HAYES: However, a judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from dismantling the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Congress has funded the department through September. For now, Greenup Library says it's still providing the same services, but that could change for it and other rural libraries. For NPR News, I'm Emily Hayes in Urbana, Illinois. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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