The Fletcher Free Library on March 20, 2020. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerVermont libraries and museums are bracing for the impact of an executive order that aims to reduce or eliminate their federal funding.In mid-March, President Donald Trump signed an order mandating seven federal entities be stripped down to their minimum functions as required by law. The list included the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the primary source of federal support for the nation’s museums and libraries.In Vermont, the institute provides roughly one-third of the Department of Libraries’ funding, which, in 2024, amounted to $1.24 million. According to State Librarian Catherine Delneo, the federal funds support shared services such as interlibrary loan, online databases, eBook access, services for those with disabilities, continuing education for library workers — “things that everyone in the state benefits from and accesses at their local library.”The executive order gave the head of the institute seven days to submit a report explaining which components of the institution, “if any,” are statutorily required. Delneo said Wednesday that no such report or guidance has yet been provided.On Monday, all staff at the Institute of Museum and Library Services were placed on administrative leave.“What I don’t know is quite a lot,” Delneo said. “It’s really challenging to hold that uncertainty.”The state library department is operating off of last year’s federal allotment, which will carry through the end of June.“I continue to remain hopeful that we will receive an allotment (for the fiscal year starting July 1) because those funds are so important to those services we provide for all Vermonters through their public libraries,” the state librarian said.While Delneo doesn’t anticipate having to do away with entire programs, losing federal funding would require scaling back certain services: for example, if something were to change, interlibrary loan itself would not disappear. However, the department might not be able to issue grants to public libraries to help them access the courier program that transports those interlibrary loan books around the state. Local libraries would have to try to fill the gap.Delneo said it’s been difficult for her to grasp “that anyone would think IMLS is unnecessary, when they administer these much needed funds to help small communities, rural communities, provide access to information for Americans.”“I’ve given my entire career toward serving public libraries, and it is disheartening to hear that the administration would look at library services as unnecessary,” she continued. Last week, the Vermont Library Association — a membership organization primarily made up of local librarians — released a statement calling the order “a serious threat to Vermont’s libraries and the communities they serve” and predicting it “would have profound consequences across Vermont, where libraries are lifelines — especially in rural and underserved areas.”“Eliminating IMLS would jeopardize the future of public libraries as inclusive, accessible community anchors,” the statement continued. “It would widen the digital divide, hinder educational advancement, and leave behind the very populations that federal programs are intended to support.”Mary Danko, the association’s president and director of the Fletcher Free Library in Burlington, said Wednesday that library patrons have been voicing concerns about the potential cuts, too.“I think it’s really shocking and upsetting to people that such a small amount of money that does so much good and is such a part of our democracy is being attacked by now,” Danko said, noting that the Institute of Museum and Library Services accounts for .0046% of the federal budget.‘Just a shame’While the institute provides yearly funding to each state’s library administrative agency, its museum grants operate a bit differently. Adam Kane, executive director of the Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium in St. Johnsbury, said Tuesday that their federal funding comes through a competitive grant process for specific projects.“Any visitor who comes to the Fairbanks will have an experience with an IMLS exhibit even though they might not realize it,” he said, adding that the institute’s funding “really builds your capacity to do interesting things in the public.”The Fairbanks, Kane said, generally applies for some sort of matching grant from the institute every year. The museum had two pending grant applications totaling $325,000 — projects that Kane said are now “just dead” because of the situation with the institute. One project would have celebrated the 250th anniversary of the United States using a natural history context, and the other was for the museum to serve as an archival hub for numerous St. Johnsbury institutions.“For us, and I think most museums, (the grants are) a capacity thing: it’s all these projects and things you want to do to implement your mission and provide services to your constituents that are now just not going to happen,” Kane said. “It’s like chopping out a part of the cultural sector which you might not see right away … but over the years, is a real diminishment.”Kane said the cuts, in addition to diminishing the vibrancy of museums, could affect economic development, by reducing tourism and the amount of grant funds spent in the local ecosystem.Federal museum grants, he continued, are not a sign of government waste — they’ve been competitively reviewed, matched by the institution, and stick to a budget.“It’s not going to line anyone’s pockets,” he said. “It’s going to create something that — at least in the opinion of that museum — is going to be beneficial to the community. And (if) all that’s gone … It’s just a shame.”Perhaps the most famous local project to get its start with an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant, Kane said, is the Eye on the Sky radio segment and weather resource run as a partnership between the Fairbanks and Vermont Public.“There was a modest federal investment that has now carried on for decades and engendered this partnership and segment that people hear every single day on the radio,” he said.The Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium is lucky in a way, Kane said, because it doesn’t have any current projects with IMLS for which they are awaiting federal funding.The Vermont Historical Society is, however, in that very position. It sent out an email on Tuesday informing members that its Activating 21st Century Local History training program depends on IMLS funding it has not yet received. Without IMLS employees to process reimbursement requests, the historical society is in search of a private funder to make up for the remaining $137,000 of the grant.Without that, it would have to end the program after April, according to the email.Kane and Delneo said the current uncertainty in their organization’s funding is similar to how they felt during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.“Every day, something new happens that you don’t quite know how to react to because it’s just unprecedented and you’re being asked to make decisions with really limited information,” Kane said, “It’s tough to know what the choices to make, because we’ve never been in these circumstances.”The state librarian said her department is trying to maintain some hopefulness as staff wait for more information.“We have no definite plan, we have no definite information … but I can say that we will continue to strive to do everything that we are required to do in statute,” she said. “How we do it might look a little bit different, but that we will still do our best to find ways to make it work.”Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont libraries, museums grapple with uncertain funding future . ...read more read less