Watchdog Finds Trump Administration Broke Law by Withholding Library Funds; The New York Times, June 16, 2025

Tony Romm , The New York Times; Watchdog Finds Trump Administration Broke Law by Withholding Library Funds

"The inquiry concerned the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which serves as the federal government’s primary source of funding for libraries, museums and archives. In March, Mr. Trump sought to sharply curtail the agency as part of an executive order focused on the “reduction of the federal bureaucracy,” prompting legal challenges from states, librarians and other opponents.

The accountability office, an arm of Congress that keeps watch over the nation’s spending, concluded on Monday that the library agency ultimately “ceased performing” its functions after the president’s directive, and withheld funding that lawmakers had previously appropriated to carry out its mission.

Ethics officials ultimately classified the interruption in aid as an illegal impoundment, which is prohibited under a 1970s law meant to restrict the president and his ability to defy Congress on spending. The White House maintains that those limits are unconstitutional, and the president and his top budget aide, Russell T. Vought, have sought to test that theory as part of their dramatic and chaotic reorganization of the federal government."

New library branch opening inside Eastwood Mall; WKBN, June 13, 2025

Chelsea Simeon, WKBN; New library branch opening inside Eastwood Mall

[Kip Currier: With lots of heavy news occurring these days, this upbeat story about the opening of a public library branch inside Eastwood Mall in Niles, Ohio is an encouraging surprise today!

I grew up across the state border in nearby Pennsylvania and have many fond memories of family visits to Eastwood Mall where we enjoyed an occasional patty melt or ice cream sundae at the long-closed Sweet William restaurant there. (As this Niles Historical Society account of the mall underscores "Hungry shoppers could stop in Sweet Williams.")

Public libraries and their customers/patrons will increasingly feel the impacts of Trump 2.0 cuts to library services with Trump's abolition of the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) that provided fiscal assistance. Many information centers have counted on IMLS grants to help them carry out their service missions. 

Patrons also count on having access to many things at libraries: not just books, but also computers, databases, programs, and much more. So, it's great to see that this new branch library "plans to offer Internet-accessible computers, printers and Wi-Fi for public use, as well as programming for children, teens and adults."

Remember that the next time someone asks what libraries provide or says that libraries aren't needed when so many people today have access to smartphones. Libraries are one of the only things left in this world that are guided by an egalitarian ethos of "Free To The People", just as that saying inscribed at the entrance to the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh continues to remind us.

Keep in mind, too, all the great things that libraries provide "free to the people" the next time you vote. Support candidates who support libraries and the many life-enhancing materials and services that people and communities can access through service-centered, well-maintained libraries.]

[Excerpt]

"Warren-Trumbull County Public Library customers will soon have access to books and other library materials while shopping at the Eastwood Mall.

A new branch — the Eastwood Mall Library — is tentatively scheduled to open Sept. 2 at the mall, according to a news release from W-TCPL. 

The branch will offer access to books, technology and programming for people of all ages at a central, accessible location...

Along with materials available for checkout, the library plans to offer Internet-accessible computers, printers and Wi-Fi for public use, as well as programming for children, teens and adults."

Federal funding cuts reach Vineyard libraries; MV Times, June 12, 2025

Eunki Seonwoo, MV Times ; Federal funding cuts reach Vineyard libraries

"Due to federal funding cuts, the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC), a state agency, announced in May it will discontinue freely providing 21 services, including a newspaper archive, certain peer-reviewed research journal databases, and career and education prep, after July 1. This decision followed an April announcementthat uncertainty stemming from federal cuts has led to various library services and trainings to be slashed. 

“Every library on the Vineyard is impacted,” said Allyson Malik, director of Oak Bluffs Public Library and president of the Massachusetts Library System executive board. 

The state agency’s decision stems from an executive order signed in March by President Donald Trump. The order directed a reduction in seven federal agencies, including the Institute of Museum & Library Services, which provided $3.6 million in fiscal year 2025 for Massachusetts libraries’ services and grants. The institute is also listed in Trump’s fiscal year 2026 budget request as one of several “small agencies” the president wants to defund or eliminate outright to “enhance accountability, reduce waste, and reduce unnecessary governmental entities.” The institute had also placed its entire staff on administrative leave in March."

Judge says administration can dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services; AP, June 6, 2025

AP; Judge says administration can dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services

"A federal judge on Friday denied a request by the American Library Association to halt the Trump administration’s further dismantling of an agency that funds and promotes libraries across the country, saying that recent court decisions suggested his court lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter. 

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon had previously agreed to temporarily block the Republican administration, saying that plaintiffs were likely to show that Trump doesn’t have the legal authority to unilaterally shutter the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which was created by Congress.

But in Friday’s ruling, Leon wrote that as much as the “Court laments the Executive Branch’s efforts to cut off this lifeline for libraries and museums,” recent court decisions suggested that the case should be heard in a separate court dedicated to contractual claims."

Librarian of Congress firing is latest move in upheaval of U.S. cultural institutions; NPR, May 9, 2025

Andrew Limbong , NPR; Librarian of Congress firing is latest move in upheaval of U.S. cultural institutions

"By firing the Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden on Thursday night, President Trump continued his remaking of American cultural institutions."

The ALA Sues Over the Scuppering of the IMLS; Publishers Weekly, April 8, 2025

John Maher, with reporting by Nathalie op de Beeck , Publishers Weekly; The ALA Sues Over the Scuppering of the IMLS

"The American Library Association (ALA) and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), whose members include museum and library workers nationwide, have sued over what the ALA called, in a release, “the Trump administration’s gutting of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).” Among the defendants are Keith Sonderling, in his capacity as acting director of the IMLS, along with the IMLS itself; President Donald Trump; and U.S. DOGE Service acting administrator Amy Gleason, along with DOGE itself.

The lawsuit, filed yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, argues that the administration’s recent actions—which include firing most IMLS staff, terminating grant programs, and effectively shutting down the organization’s operations—are both illegal and, separately, unconstitutional. The actions, the suit asserts, violate the first two articles of the Constitution: Article I, which establishes the separation of powers and designates Congress as the only body with authority to pass laws creating government agencies, and Article II, which enumerates the president’s duty to “take care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” It also alleges that the defendants’ actions violate the Administrative Procedure Act, which establishes the responsibility of the judiciary to “hold unlawful and set aside agency action...found to be arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law.

In addition, the suit asserts, “Defendants’ evisceration of the agency will have immediate and disastrous consequences for Plaintiffs ALA and AFSCME as well as their members, including librarians, libraries, and the public.”"

Trump’s budget eliminates NEA, public TV and other cultural agencies. Again.; Washington Post, February 12, 2018

Peggy McGlone, Washington Post; Trump’s budget eliminates NEA, public TV and other cultural agencies. Again.

"In a repeat of last year, the Trump administration’s budget proposal for 2019 calls for eliminating four federal cultural agencies in a move that would save almost $1 billion from a $4.4 trillion spending plan.

Trump’s proposal calls for drastically reducing the funding to begin closing the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The four agencies would share $109 million in 2019, a overall cut of $917 million.

Congress rejected a nearly identical plan from the Trump administration last year...

In a statement, IMLS director Kathryn K. Matthews said her agency is the primary source of federal funding for museums and libraries.

“Without IMLS funding for museums and libraries, it would be more difficult for many people to gain access to the internet, continue their education, learn critical research skills, and find employment,” Matthews said.

Laura Lott, president and chief executive of the American Alliance of Museums, blasted the “continued threats” to the cultural agencies that support the work of her membership.""