Madison Public Library director Tana Elias.
Madison Public Library’s Tana Elias says a director bootcamp was ‘one incredible use of IMLS funding.’
If you have lost track of where things stand with federal library funding these days, that’s understandable — there’s a lot going on at the moment.
We need to start with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The federal agency made headlines in March when President Donald Trump signed an executive order eliminating it and six other “governmental entities.”
The Institute of Museum and Library Services supports libraries, archives and museums in all 50 states with funding that is applied to everything from basic operations to special programming.
IMLS staff were initially sent home and the agency’s funding was frozen. Two lawsuits, American Library Association v. Sonderling and Rhode Island v. Trump, were subsequently filed.
Some staff returned to work and IMLS grants were reinstated, due to a preliminary injunction issued in the Rhode Island suit.
In the Rhode Island case, 21 states, including Wisconsin, argue that the executive order violates the Administrative Procedure Act, the Appropriations Clause, and separation of powers. A preliminary injunction issued in May has since directed the return of staff and reinstatement of IMLS grants.
Meanwhile, the federal budget is still in play until September since the House of Representatives adjourned early to avoid a vote on releasing the Epstein files.
This gives libraries another month to urge their patrons to contact their representatives to express their support for funding, says Tana Elias, director of Madison Public Library, although the Wisconsin Public Library Systems’ official postcard writing campaign ended in July.
Madison is in a good position compared to some rural libraries, says Elias, because 68% to 79% of its funding comes from the city.
But IMLS monies do impact Madison in that the agency provides funding for the state Department of Public Instruction's Division for Libraries and Technology, which supports both public and school libraries across the state. DPI arranges for staff development workshops, database access through BadgerLink, and the software that runs the Outerlibrary Loan service, through which patrons can borrow books from all over the country. “For us, what is at stake is bigger-picture things, support for library systems,” Elias says.
Elias cites a library director bootcamp, paid for by IMLS funds, that she attended when she took over the reins of Madison’s library system in 2024. Many library directors “are in small communities with very little library funding. Sometimes they are a staff of one,” and can’t normally leave for professional development. But they have certification requirements, she explains, and need to understand what their legal and financial and statutory requirements are as library directors. “For me, that was one incredible use of IMLS funding, to make sure that I can be the best director that I can be, and for those smaller communities, where there may not be as much support as you find in Madison, that [IMLS] support is critical.”
Ben Miller, Bureau of Libraries director at DPI and state librarian, says he is grateful that the state added funding to its 2026 budget that will offset some of the potential losses of defunding IMLS.
That includes the state picking up $400,000 for the software behind Outerlibrary Loan and BadgerLink, says Miller, but not the money for the staff that make it work. Wisconsin has “above a 90% fill rate” for Outerlibrary Loan requests, thanks to staffers who use the software, while nationally most states are closer to 75%. That gap comes when states rely solely on computers to make the matches between requests and the material. This can include filling in incomplete information from requesters, correcting typos that would make a computer search go astray, or tracking down titles that fulfill a more general subject request. “Having that human element is what allows us to fulfill almost every request that comes through.”
That software also runs the BadgerLink database. “Without the human beings behind it that come from our IMLS funding, we would just have a piece of software that would kind of work for a while and then probably stop working, and then be just a bad investment because it wouldn’t do the things it’s supposed to do. They’re pretty complex pieces of software, they really need people.”
Miller figures that he would have to reduce his 19 staff members to less than three full-time employees if federal funding is pulled. “That’s just not feasible.” The funds coming from the state just lower “how much we would need to recoup if federal funds go away.”
Miller is watching the appropriations process in Congress. In late July, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved funding that could keep IMLS going for another year. The House won’t act until September.
Miller is also watching for the potential renewal of the Museum and Library Services Act of 2018, which expires Oct. 1, 2025. “We would be incredibly hopeful that Congress would introduce and pass a Museum and Library Services Act of 2025 to extend that for another seven years.” That would offer a measure of security that the year-to-year funding doesn’t. “Both don’t need to happen,” says Miller, but continual funding uncertainty makes planning difficult, and Miller says he is being “incredibly cautious” right now.
“Our strategy at the state level is to keep doing our jobs as well as we can to provide that value, because that’s the most important thing this all rests on,” says Miller. “This is really good stuff and it doesn’t cost very much.”
