The Trump Administration is making cuts at the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Known as the IMLS, the agency is largely responsible for managing grants and resources to support cultural institutions. In 2024 IMLS awarded about $260 million total. In 2024 over $3 million dollars were awarded to the Missouri State Library, which is managed by the Secretary of State and is charged with dispersing those funds to local communities to support things like training, programs and technology upgrades.
Monday afternoon it was announced that the entire federal staff of the IMLS would be put on leave.
Former director of the agency Crosby Kemper is also a former director of the Kansas City Public Library and former CEO of UMB Financial and UMB Bank.
Kemper said he saw enormous bureaucracy during his tenure leading the agency, but he says cuts should be targeted and precise. The money the IMLS is responsible for touches almost every public library in the country, big and small, with spending decisions made at the local level. Kemper described it as close to an ideal federal program.
He said it seems this is about “simply demonstrating very big cuts,” which he said, “they can do.” But he explained that they may not get what they want out of it. Kemper said if grants are impacted “they’ll cut off funding to a lot of local institutions that are doing good things at the local level.”
In a statement, the union representing the workers on leave says without staff to administer the programs it's likely most grants will be terminated, and the status of previously awarded grants is unclear. Edward Walton, Executive Director of the Springfield-Greene County Library says the Missouri State Librarian informed public libraries of the cuts yesterday, but did not provide any additional information about current or future grants. The district says since 2016 it has received about $800,000 in grants originating at the IMLS, including a grant this year to replace aging computers. The Christian County Library says it has received about $200,000 since 2020.
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