Directors of Lincoln County libraries called for community support in the face of an executive order from the White House they said would be “catastrophic” to their operations.
“This is a big deal,” said Matthew Graff, director of Skidompha Public Library in Damariscotta. “There are just lists and lists of things that this federal funding is crucial for.”
Graff was responding to an executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump on March 14 calling for the elimination of seven federal agencies, including the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the agency that oversees federal funding for libraries across the nation.
“The funding is very important to library services across Maine. I can also say it will likely hit smaller, more rural libraries the hardest,” Graff said.
In the wake of the president’s action order, Graff sent an email to library patrons requesting that they contact local representatives to push back against the order. Cathrina Skov, director of Waldoboro Public Library, made a similar appeal to patrons via email.
“This is a nationwide issue,” Skov said.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services administers federal funding to libraries and library associations nationwide, including the Maine Library Association. The association uses the funds to supply free internet to public libraries throughout the state, support interlibrary lending, supply large print and recorded books to people who are blind or visually impaired, offering continuing education for Maine librarians, support cloud services and databases used by Maine libraries, provide technical support to libraries across the state, and send books by mail to people who are homebound or who live in rural areas without a local library, according to a press release issued by the association.
Graff said he believed the move would affect people in rural areas most because libraries in those areas, in general, already function with smaller budgets, and, as a result, rely more heavily on outside funding and support, such as Maine Library Association programs.
Eliminating the Institute of Museum and Library Services could affect every library patron in Maine and in the nation, Graff said.
Skidompha is not a direct recipient of federal dollars, but the library benefits from numerous Maine Library Association programs including free internet and interlibrary lending, Graff said.
The difficult period that occurred during the summer of 2024, when interlibrary lending was disrupted in Maine due to the process of changing vendors, may provide clues about what is to come, Graff said.
“We saw the importance of (interlibrary lending) over the summer when we lost it for a few months,” he said. Not having Maine Library Association support for interlibrary lending “would be more of a strain on our budget, as well as for everybody else … I think it will become a lot more expensive, and libraries will be forced to pick up a lot of the funding towards that, which is going to be a real strain on libraries that are already strained.”
As signed, the March 14 executive order calls for the elimination of the agencies it names “to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.” It is one of more than 100 executive orders the president has signed since assuming office Jan. 20. Other agencies identified for elimination in the March 14 order are the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, which arbitrates disputes in public and private industry; the U.S. Agency for Global Media, a diplomatic radio station that broadcasts U.S. and international news abroad; the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institute, a research institute chartered as a hub for nonpartisan policy research; the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, the only federal agency dedicated to preventing and ending homelessness in the U.S.; the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, which facilitates investment in economically disadvantaged communities; and the Minority Business Development Agency, which promotes the growth of businesses owned by people belonging to minority groups.
Graff said he felt any cost savings achieved by eliminating the institute are outweighed by the far-reaching benefits of libraries nationwide.
“IMLS funding only accounts for .003% of the federal budget, and the return on that investment is profound,” Graff said.
For now, public librarians are focusing on rallying community support in hopes that state representatives can push back against the order, said Graff, who along with Skov, has called for patrons and their friends and family to reach out to state and federal representatives.
So far, the response from patrons had been “heartening,” Graff said.
