Federal funding for libraries and museums has been reinstated nine months after the Trump administration first sought to eliminate the agency that provides that money.
The initial move sparked concern around Alaska, where dozens of tribes and villages rely on federal dollars to pay staff and offer programming at libraries. At the time, a handful of libraries reported grant cancellations.
But in early December, the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services said the funding had been restored. The move came after a Rhode Island District Court judge ruled last month on a lawsuit brought by 21 states over the cuts. The judge ruled that the funding cancellation was unconstitutional.
“This action supersedes any prior notices which may have been received related to grant termination,” the agency said in the three-sentence notice. The notice did not acknowledge the recent ruling, but said grantees should check its online grant management system for more information.
At least some libraries in Alaska that lost federal funding last spring have received notice that it’s been reinstated. But in at least two cases, that happened months before the November ruling.
The Tuzzy Consortium Library in Utqiaġvik saw a major grant cancellation earlier this year. The $80,000 grant pays for staff and professional development at seven branch libraries across the North Slope.
Library director Teressa Williams said she received a reinstatement notice in July that said the agency had determined that the grant “is consistent with the agency’s priorities and furtherance of the President’s agenda.”
“I don’t know why we got reinstated whereas others didn’t,” Williams said.
The library in the Native village of Klukwan, outside Haines, lost the bulk of its funding in the spring. That included a $150,000 grant, of which only $100,000 had been spent, plus another $10,000 grant.
The move forced staff to dramatically slash hours to just four per week, and to cancel all events, workshops and other programming.
As of early December, both grants were restored – and the library had been awarded two new ones.
The funding came through sporadically over the course of several months, Klukwan library co-director Jamie Katzeek said in an email. The library’s $10,000 grant was reinstated in June. Then, in August, the library was awarded the same grant for the coming year. In September, the agency notified the library it had been awarded a 2-year “enhancement grant” for fiscal year 2025. Finally, in early December, the library’s larger $150,000 grant was reinstated.
“This will give us funding for staff hours as well as being able to offer our originally planned programming,” Katzeek said in an email Wednesday morning.
Katzeek said the library is currently re-working its budget, but the current plan is to be open five or six days each week.
The president of the Alaska Library Association was not available to comment. Association President-elect Rebecca Moorman said she reached out to libraries across the state to check in on their funding but so far has not received many responses.
Moorman did hear that one project with a suspended grant just had its funding restored, but she declined to elaborate.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services also provides funding to other entities, including states.
Some states received cancellation notices. But Alaska State Libraries, Archives and Museums Director Amy Phillips-Chan said in an email Friday morning that Alaska never received one, and “ultimately received the entire allocation of IMLS Grants to States funding for 2024, and a similar allocation for 2025.”
The American Library Association said in a statement that the organization is “breathing a sigh of relief.”
“Restoration of these grants is a massive win for libraries of all kinds in all states,” wrote association President Sam Helmich. “Every public, school and academic library and their patrons benefit from the research findings and program outcomes from individual library and organization grantees.”
Helmich added that the fight may not be over, given that the administration could appeal the court decision – and that Congress could choose not to fund the agency in the future.
