Federal funding pulled from WA state libraries

Washington library programs are facing potentially “devastating consequences” after receiving notification last week that federal funding has been eliminated for programs like libraries at state prisons and support for rural and tribal libraries.

The Washington State Library, which operates a reading room in Olympia and specialized branches like the Washington Talking Book and Braille Library, distributes grant money to Institutional Library Services. It receives federal funding each year from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services’ “Grants to States” program.

Washington State Librarian Sara Jones told The Seattle Times she received notification last Wednesday that this year’s $3.9 million grant had been terminated in an April 1 memorandum penned by IMLS Acting Director Keith Sonderling, who was appointed to lead the agency by President Donald Trump and sworn in March 20.

To lose federal funding in addition to likely state funding cuts means it will be difficult for Jones to “run a state library for this state that’s anything close to what people recognize,” and could lead the state library to be funded “at well less than half of what we were last year,” she said.

In the memorandum, Sonderling wrote the grant is “unfortunately inconsistent with IMLS’ priorities” and said an executive order issued by Trump March 14 mandated the IMLS to “eliminate all non-statutorily required activities and functions.” On March 31, the entire 70-person IMLS staff was placed on administrative leave.

The executive order claimed its purpose was to “continue the reduction of federal bureaucracy” and directed the IMLS and several other agencies such as the United States Agency for Global Media, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution, and the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness to “reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required.”

An email request from The Times to the media contact listed on the IMLS webpage was returned as undeliverable. 

The IMLS, an independent agency of the federal government, was established in 1996, and provides federal grants to libraries and museums all over the country. Washington libraries have received federal funding since the 60s and the state’s library agency has existed since territorial times, Jones said.

In a document forwarded to The Times, Jones wrote that losing the federal funding “would have devastating consequences, especially for smaller and rural libraries.” This year’s grant was pulled despite being two-thirds of the way through the federal fiscal year, Jones said. She said Washington was one of only three states including California and Connecticut to have federal dollars pulled. 

The Washington State Library manages the federal dollars and also administers them to public, tribal, K-12, universities and community college libraries. Access to e-books and audiobooks, research databases and digitized heritage materials are funded with federal dollars, and are at risk without grant money, Jones said. 

Considering the state’s $16 billion budget shortfall over the next four years, Jones said that having federal funding pulled “couldn’t be at a worse time.” Library services were already in a tough financial situation and the state library was looking at cutbacks in services.

“It’s really hard for me to imagine how bad these cuts and services to people are going to be,” Jones said.

Additionally, the impacts will also be felt in libraries and library programs in juvenile detention centers, state hospitals, and state prisons.

Jim Kopriva, media relations manager for the Washington Department of Corrections, said reducing funding for those services will be a “shock” to those programs. He said DOC’s mission is to try and help incarcerated individuals become better people while they are in custody and not return after release.

“That means educating them. That means emotional regulation, drug treatment and whatever they need to be stable and not come back,” said Kopriva. “Education is a big part of that. And literature is a big part of that — personal enrichment is a priority of corrections. And so if our libraries are closed after 50 years, that’ll be a shock for sure.”

Nine of the 12 prisons in the state are served by the state library and supported by grant funding, as well as Eastern and Western State Hospitals. Federal funds also support 32 partially or fully funded Library Development staff, staff at Washington Talking Book and Braille Library in Seattle, and prison and hospital library staff.

In a letter to Washington’s congressional delegates dated April 4, Secretary of State Steve Hobbs wrote that Washington libraries, universities, tribes and museums received more than $23.7 million in the last three years through the IMLS grants. 

“Libraries ensure people have unfettered access to information at hundreds of public, school, academic, and institutional library locations across Washington,” Hobbs told delegates. “This commitment is rooted in the fundamental principle that an educated and informed citizenry is critical to a free society. That goal for libraries is not a partisan issue.”

On Friday, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown joined 20 other states in a lawsuit against the Trump administration to block the dismantling of the IMLS.