Vermont's libraries and museums targeted by Trump Administration funding cuts: What we know

AI-assisted summary
• President Trump signed an executive order to defund the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which provides funding to Vermont's museums and libraries.
• The IMLS provides $1.2 million in funding to Vermont, which supports services such as interlibrary loans and online databases.
• The National Museums and Library Services Board argues that defunding the IMLS would violate Congressional intent and federal statute.
• The Vermont Historical Society is facing uncertainty regarding funding for a local history training program due to the potential IMLS defunding.

The directors of Vermont's museums and libraries are anxiously waiting to learn the fate of their federal funding as the Trump Administration continues to slash agencies including the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which provides funding directly to the state.

On March 14, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled "Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy," calling for an immediate defunding of seven governmental entities. The IMLS is on the list.

Also on the list are:

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service;The United States Agency for Global Media;The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution;The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness;The Community Development Financial Institutions Fund; andThe Minority Business Development Agency.

State Librarian Catherine Delneo said Tuesday it could be days or weeks until she learns the fate of $1.2 million in funding IMLS provided Vermont in 2024, which will be included in a report that the IMLS has been ordered to produce, saying to what degree they're going to reduce the "non-statutory components and functions" of their operations.

Trump wants those functions cut "to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law," according to the executive order, and also wants the seven governmental entities to "reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law."

"We reached out to the program manager yesterday," Delneo said. "They don't have anything to share right now. The new acting director will be submitting the report. We're waiting for the exact impact."

Funding to libraries and museums can't be eliminated without Congressional consent, says national organization

On March 24, the National Museums and Library Services Board sent a letter to IMLS Acting Director Keith Sonderling, noting the March 14 executive order, and saying, "It is our considered determination that the Museum and Library Services Act of 2018, as codified in Title 20 of the U.S. Code, outlines specific statutory mandates that cannot be paused, reduced or eliminated without violating Congressional intent and federal statute."

Among those mandates, the letter continues, are grants for library services − the $1.2 million the state relies on for a variety of services provided to Vermonters.

Without the federal funding, Delneo said the interlibrary loan service would cease to exist. More than 200 libraries in the state participate in the service, and last year more than 90,000 items were moved around the state, thanks to the service.

"You go to your local library and they don't have a fly-fishing book," she said. "They call another library and say 'Hey, you're located near good fly-fishing, do you have a book?' Every library doesn't have every cookbook or every novel. We share the resources."

Online databases maintained by the library system that generated more than 500,000 searches last year would also be jeopardized by defunding IMLS, according to Delneo, who said the library online services include a "learning platform."

"(The learning platform is) pretty popular among folks trying to learn skills for jobs and hobbies," she said.

Federal funding pays a portion of the salaries of 16 out of 18 staff members who work for the Vermont Department of Libraries.

"I'm sure you can understand how frustrating it is to sit here waiting for them to tell us what is going to happen," Delneo said. "I'm hopeful they'll agree grants to states is necessary and important to fully fund."

Training program for local museums and historical societies is also threatened

Stephen Perkins, executive director of the Vermont Historical Society said his organization currently has two active grants with IMLS − one to fund a COVID-19 oral history project and the other to fund a local history training program.

Perkins said Tuesday that federal reimbursement for the COVID-19 project did come in that day, but that the money for the training program is still in question.

"We've received funds to fund the (training) project through the middle of April," he said. "Beyond that I don't know and I don't have a lot of confidence in it being funded going forward."

Hannah Kirkpatrick, a recent University of Vermont graduate with a master's degree in public history, was hired in October for the planned two-year training program. She has been traveling the state, helping local historical societies and museums implement good museum practices, and making sure artifacts and historical documents being held all over Vermont are being handled properly, and tell a story.

"An added benefit is the program is also designed to train young pros in the field of archives, museums and history," Perkins said.

The COVID-19 project resulted in a book, edited by veteran journalist Garrett Graff, which went on sale on Tuesday, and a podcast series that will launch on Friday

"We worked on it for three years," Perkins said of the COVID-19 project. "Oral historians conducted and recorded hours and hours of firsthand testimonies. It was everyone from (Health Department Director) Dr. Levine down to a private citizen affected at a very personal level. We interviewed vaccine skeptics and those involved in the creation of the vaccine. We need to collect this (information) in real time for the future. If it happens again, how do we learn from it?"

Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosio@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDambrosioVT.