Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette A March 14 Executive Order calls for eliminating the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which would have a negative impact on some local library services

HOUGHTON – Last Wednesday, the Portage Lake District Library issued a press release in which the library’s Board expressed concern over the March 14, 2025 federal executive order mandating funding cuts for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which supports vital services for libraries nationwide.

These cuts would impact the Michigan Electronic Library (MeL and MeLCat) – a centralized catalog and resource-sharing service (inter-library loan) created to lend and share materials among all types of libraries in Michigan. MeL databases are used extensively by academic, school and public libraries and their patrons.

On March 14, President Trump issued an Executive Order to eliminate the federal agency dedicated to funding library services, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), as well as six other agencies. Executive Order 14238 directs that seven agencies, including the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), be eliminated to the maximum extent of the law and the agencies were ordered to reduce their services and personnel to the minimum amount required to perform the functions required by law. According to the Federal News Network, IMLS is the primary source of federal support for U.S. libraries and museums. The agency supports them through grants, research and policy development. The agency has about 75 employees. As of fiscal 2024, it had an annual budget of just under $295 million.

The Michigan Dept. of Education opposes the Executive Order. In a Mar. 20 release, the MDOE said an executive order to eliminate the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services would decrease access to information and resources provided by libraries in Michigan and nationally. Katrina Lind-Moriarty, library director at Portage Lake District Library, said that in Michigan, those federal funds primarily affect three initiatives, which include the Michigan eLibrary (MeL), MeLCat, which provides statewide access to physical books and other items from 435 public, academic, and school libraries around the state (Interlibrary loan), and also funds Summer reading and early literacy materials and training for public librarians to support family literacy, which supported 651,603 visits in fiscal year 2023 by children to early literacy programs in Michigan’s public libraries.

“It’s not so much a direct effect in terms of funding cuts to us specifically,” Lind-Moriarty said, “because federal funds fund things at more of the cooperative and state levels, and so if you think of the trickle down affects of economies and whatnot, this is kind of an example of that.”

IMLS funds, provided at the federal level, she said, funnel down to the states.

“Each state does those funds a little differently, based on their state, the rules and regulations that they have set up for their libraries,” Lind-Moriarty said.

In Michigan, IMLS funding predominantly affects three statewide initiatives, according to Lind-Moriarty. “They are MeLCat, which is the statewide digital database system for things like peer-reviewed journals to e-content and e-books, to encyclopedias for students and coursework for adults, to it’s kind of multi-faceted, but when you think of classical digital databases, that’s the kind of thing that we’re talking about.”

She said the state interlibrary loan service could also be impacted. “So, we have agreements throughout the Upper Peninsula and northern Michigan. We have one hub of delivery and other hubs downstate, and the initiative of bringing all those hubs together, and the movement of materials across those hubs to the individual libraries, like ourselves.”

Lind-Moriarty said because PLDL has limited square footage and limited space, the policy is to try to limit its collections as much as possible to the local public and its needs. “But sometimes needs are a little bit more specific than what we can do,” she said, “so being able to lean on other libraries and be able to have those materials bring them in for those more niche topics is excellent. This is across library types. We’re seeing lending and sharing at public libraries, school libraries, specialty libraries, university archives, and so forth. Having that wealth of knowledge at one’s disposal is amazing.”

The third primary initiative, she said, is continuing education for professionals and paraprofessionals like library aids, midrange managers and directors. “I just did a cohort program that was funded through federal dollars that allowed me to go to Lansing.”

The program allowed her to meet with other directors and extend her knowledge set, which she would not otherwise be able to do.

“It costs about $1,000 just in travel to Lansing, stay for two nights and come back,” Lind-Moriarty said, “and so being able to have opportunities like that subsets through federal funding means my staff and I can stay up to speed on current trends and connect with out peers.”