An executive order that was issued by President Donald Trump from this past March outlined several federal agencies in which to reduce funding and one of those was the Institute of Museums and Library Services. 

Since then, sources say an injunction was put in place in early May by a district court judge that halted that process from the executive order. According to the IMLS, the agency provides grants to states to allocate funding, which includes all of Iowa’s libraries. Churdan Library Director Shari Minnehan tells Raccoon Valley Radio the grant funding they get via the state from IMLS covers lots of programs that they use. She points out that one program she uses regularly from funding by IMLS is Iowa Shares, where public libraries can literally share books between each other and Minnehan has found this service to be quite useful.

“That service is just phenomenal because Shari can’t carry all the books and the genres that people are interested in, or all the series of an author. So we always got books coming in and books going out. So that’s a very valuable service.” 

Minnehan says other programs from the funding they get from IMLS includes their free website, access to LibraryTalk, that allows library directors to share information and programs on a free platform; the People’s Law Library, a free service on their website for people to ask legal questions in certain situations; as well as one of the most used items, the online app, “Bridges.” Minnehan notes that this service gives patrons the ability to download books, audio books, magazines and other items for free. 

Minnehan explains that while none of those programs have been reduced or eliminated, she did see a personal impact from a training program she was doing for library staff called, “Mental First Aid” that was through another federal grant funding agency. She says this program gave information on how to know if someone is experiencing an episode, how to engage if needed and handle the situation, while contacting resources for help.  

“There were to be follow up classes, would be more information, there was some worksheets and things, and work books to go through. And that was through the Laura Bush Grant, and that totally went, that’s gone. That is a direct impact for me. Right now, it’s grants like that, that are more impacted at this point than the actual funding, I think.”

Minnehan is grateful for all of the other funding resources that the Churdan Library receives including Partnerships 4 Families, the city of Churdan, the Greene County Board of Supervisors, among others. She adds that she is hoping the grant funding remains in place at the federal level so they can continue to provide the services that they currently do.