On Monday night, the Institute of Museums and Libraries (IMLS)—the office providing funding and resources to public libraries and museums—decided to reinstate the $2.1 million grant cut mid-year for the Connecticut State Library.
Librarian Deborah Schander said that the Connecticut State Library receives about $2.1 million every year from IMLS. This money supports 13 staff members in the division of Library Development, summer reading programs, audiobooks for veterans, eBooks, and other programs for children and military families. Without federal funding, all these services were at risk of disappearing.
“I think it was very surprising and disheartening to people. A lot of members of the public don't even realize how much the services that are provided to them are actually provided by the State Library, through their local libraries. And so I think it was just very shocking and disheartening for people to learn that this funding, and really the programs and services that they rely on so heavily, were potentially at risk, and could potentially be going away at any time,” she said.
Connecticut was one of three states, alongside Washington and California, that had their grant revoked at the beginning of last month, and the reasons for this are still unknown.
“Unfortunately, we were not given any reason other than a generic message for why the grant was terminated. And at the same time, we also weren't told why it was reinstated either. There are a lot of things we could speculate about, but we were never actually given a reason for either decision,” Schander explained.
But what measures can be taken to ensure this kind of threat to federal library funding doesn’t happen again?
“I would say the lawsuit will definitely continue to play out. We'll be watching that very carefully. We're all continuing to be in close contact with our federal delegation, state representatives, and other leaders here in Connecticut to help them understand the situation and the impact that it has on libraries and museums. So we are definitely keeping a careful eye on any information we receive and action that's happening from the federal government at this point.”
The Connecticut State Library is working closely with other state libraries nationwide and has strong connections with them to help safeguard IMLS funding.
