The White House issued an executive order on March 14 expressing the Trump administration’s plans to eliminate several governmental entities, including the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
While the agency hasn’t been eliminated, as of March 31, all of its staff were placed on administrative leave without the status of the agency’s operations being confirmed.
The IMLS is responsible for providing all 50 states and territories with grant funding that expands and enhances museum and library services. During the 2023-2024 fiscal year, $5 million in federal grants were awarded to N.C. libraries alone.
While most public libraries and museums are funded by city and county taxes, federal IMLS grants bankroll several extremely impactful programs nationwide, especially in Greensboro.
“Having [federal] grants coming through the library allows us to go beyond normal services and provide some innovative and entrepreneurial type of services, activities, and resources,” said UNCG dean of university libraries, Micheal Crumpton. “The normal operating budget will sustain itself for routine daily activities but it takes some grant activity to take a step beyond and do something extraordinary.”
During the 2023-2024 fiscal year, the UNCG library system received nearly $250,000 to allocate toward the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program, a program designed to support the training and professional development of diverse librarians and archivists.
“I think [the program] gave us the opportunity to learn how to recruit and identify the needs to support diverse communities that need diverse librarians working in them,” said Crumpton.
Additionally, UNCG received over $100,000 to support ‘People Not Property: Slave Deed;’ a project within the university’s ‘Digital Library on American Slavery’ that has a database of over 10,000 digitized slave deed documents.
Now that the IMLS may be terminated, Crumpton and his colleagues are unsure if the university will be able to continue to sustain programs and projects like Laura Bush and ‘People Not Property.’
Down the street at the Greensboro History Museum, there isn’t as much to lose. The Greensboro History Museum doesn’t have any recent or active IMLS grants, however in 2024, the institution was approved for a grant of $25,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) which is housed under the same foundation as the IMLS.
The museum director, Carol Ghiorsi Hart, says the museum staff hasn’t gotten any communication about whether or not their NEH grant will be impacted by the changes within the IMLS nor have they received the award money.
The International Civil Rights Center and Museum, one of Greensboro’s most prominent attractions, also does not have any active IMLS grants and has only received one federal grant within the last 15 years.
The CEO of the museum, John L. Swaine says that because the institution is small in size but large in impact, he doesn’t have the bandwidth to go through the long process of continually applying for IMLS grants. However, he’s still unhappy about the possibility of the agency shutting down.
“It’s quite unfortunate that the federal government would trim any support that would go to museums and libraries,” said Swaine. “When things like this happen, people start sensing that there is a lack of a need to understand and to gain great insights.”
While IMLS grants give aid to local museums and libraries, Greensboro residents overwhelmingly keep them afloat. To support your local library, consider opening a library card, donating materials and attending community events. Also, pay your local museum frequent visits and consider purchasing a membership.
