The Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to the federal bureaucracy have included slashing a little-known government agency that channels grant money to America’s libraries — a potentially crippling interruption to a funding lifeline for libraries around the country.
One staff member at the Institute of Museum and Library Services sent grant coordinators a chilling email, obtained by CBS News, warning the agency would “not be able to work or respond to your emails” and that there was no “information about future timelines related to this action.”
“You call and the phone just keeps ringing, you know, there’s nobody home,” Mandy Knapp, the Ohio state librarian and executive director, said in an interview with CBS News.
On March 20, teams from DOGE — the budget-cutting army led by billionaire Elon Musk — descended on the Institute, a tiny federal department that was created by Congress in 1996 to oversee grants for museums and libraries around the nation. Late Wednesday night, organizations that receive Institute funding “began receiving notification that their grants were being terminated, effective immediately,” according to a local branch of the American Federation of Government Employees union.
Wednesday night, word came that more than a dozen Institute grants were terminated — “seemingly at random,” the union said. Three states, California, Connecticut and Washington, received the first termination notices for their state library grants, according to a statement from the union.
The notification could not have come at a worse time, library officials told CBS News. Washington’s Deputy Secretary of State Randy Bolerjack says that the funding they received through the program helped support 32 positions at the Washington State Library, which have statewide impact and benefit public, tribal, K-12, and community college libraries.
The Institute has previously cited its “Grants to States” program as the largest source of federal funding support for library services in the U.S. With over $160 million allocated to the program annually. The grants are formulated based on population and give state libraries complete oversight as to how funding is allocated to their local branches. In states like Ohio and South Carolina, officials told CBS News that this funding has been critical to keeping libraries in rural areas on par with those in larger cities.
Breanne Smith, associate deputy director at South Carolina’s state library, told us that public libraries in the state saw over 10 million visits last year alone. She says in rural communities especially, libraries are more than just a place to check out books.
“People go to their library for not even just the library services, they just go there for wifi, to use a computer. Libraries are really a community anchor,” Smith said.
In a statement obtained by CBS, notice of the cuts to Washington’s state library came from the Institute’s acting director, Keith Sonderling, who is a deputy director at the Labor Department. Union officials said they were told that the Trump administration cuts were made because they were not aligned with the Institute’s priorities. The deputy director at the South Carolina state library, Chris Yates, says he finds their rationale “puzzling.”
CBS News has reached out to the Labor Department for comment, but has not received a reply.
Yates also expressed that the sporadic cuts have left state library staff in a state of uncertainty. The funds South Carolina receives support public libraries in all 43 counties, which serve over 5.4 million residents.
“Everyone, I think, is just in a holding pattern to see if they’re gonna receive a letter or not.”, Yates told CBS News.
Knapp says their funding does more than support libraries — it also funds summer reading programs, special access to materials for those with visual impairments, and offers access to state-of-the-art technology and the internet in rural communities. Their “vital” summer reading program has already been put on pause, Knapp said.
In a letter sent to the White House yesterday, 127 Democratic members of Congress urged the administration to reconsider its decision to shutter the agency. “Eliminating the [the Institute] would not only jeopardize these essential services but also dismiss the everyday needs of millions of Americans who rely on libraries and museums for learning, job opportunities, and community engagement,” the letter says.
Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, told CBS News that the cuts will only undermine Americans’ access to library resources, which he considers vital to bringing communities together.
“Trump’s plan to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services would barely make a dent in the federal budget, but it would be devastating for communities across the country,” Murphy said.
In addition to congressional support, four major publishing houses have also sent a letter to Congress outlining concerns, saying, “libraries are essential community hubs that provide free access to these valuable tools and resources. Defunding libraries would result in mass closures and the destruction of a system that today benefits millions of Americans.”