Stuck In Awe

the Trump administration’s proposed budget plan for FY18 includes cutting all funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) which is….. bad. I’m my library system, IMLS pays 11% of our total annual budget, which doesn’t sound like much, but in a lot of rural areas or states without as much state-level support for libraries, IMLS is responsible for the bulk of their operating costs and loss of this funding could mean the complete closure of central branches and loss of library resources for entire communities

I talk about this a lot on here, but libraries aren’t just free books – they’re a crucial service for under-served communities, they provide job search assistance to job seekers, crucial early learning and literary skills to kids, they provide information and access to people with no other way of getting them, they provide free internet and computer access, a free and safe place to be for homeless people, for teenagers after school, for families who can’t afford expensive daycare, and many of them provide free lunches for kids in the summer who aren’t getting lunch because they aren’t in school, and countless other things

there are so many communities out there who cannot afford to lose this funding and to lose the support that their libraries provide