• President Donald Trump ordered the little-known Institute of Museum and Library Services to cut as much as legally possible
• That agency pumps millions of dollars into Michigan libraries to help support programming  
• Library officials worry rural communities will suffer most if the agency makes the cuts

Michigan museum and library officials are sounding the alarm about President Donald Trump’s push to dramatically shrink the federal agency that supports them, saying the impacts would be felt acutely in rural Michigan.

In a March 14 executive order, Trump listed the Institute of Museum and Library Services and six other federal agencies as “elements of the Federal bureaucracy that the president has determined unnecessary.”

The order gave agency leaders until Friday to reduce their agencies’ functions to the minimum required by law. It remains unclear how many staff could be let go and which programs could be eliminated under the order.

Museum and library officials in Michigan say they’re bracing for impacts to a federally-funded database and loan system that allows Michiganders to access books and other materials their library doesn’t carry and grants that help libraries and museums maintain their services.

“A dramatic reduction in scope is what we’re preparing for at this point,” said Debbie Mikula, executive director of the Michigan Library Association.

Here’s what to know: 

What’s in the order?

The order requires the Institute of Museum and Library Services and six other agencies to eliminate all functions that aren’t required by federal law and “reduce the performance” of remaining functions to a bare minimum.

Beyond the museum and library group, the order applies to:

• The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services that provides mediation to end labor disputes
• The United States Agency for Global Media, which runs Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and other media operations overseas.
• The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution, a global think tank that focuses on foreign policy and climate change
• The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness that coordinates federal policy about homelessness
• The Community Development Financial Institutions Fund that promotes economic revitalization in distressed communities
• The Minority Business Development Agency that promotes growth and competitiveness of minority-owned businesses

A White House statement said the proposed cuts would “enhance accountability, reduce waste, and promote innovation.”

“The American people elected President Trump to drain the swamp and end ineffective government programs that empower government without achieving measurable results,” the statement said.

Among the smallest federal agencies, the museum and library institute was founded in 1996 and has a budget of $280 million, or four-thousandths of a percent of the federal budget. 

Most of the money is doled out as grants to state, local and tribal libraries and museums. Congress extended the agency’s funding through September as part of a budget resolution passed Friday and signed by Trump.

Library and museum officials are wary of what happens when a new fiscal year begins in October, noting that Trump repeatedly proposed slashing the agency’s budget during his first term in office.

In the past, “Congress has stood up and said, ‘No, no, no, no, no. We want those programs,’” Mikula said. “We don't know where Congress is right now.”

How is Michigan affected?

While Michigan libraries’ operating budgets are covered primarily through local levies, they and the state’s museums collectively receive millions annually through the Institute of Museum and Library Services to fund specific programs and services.

That includes about $4.8 million annually for services operated by the Library of Michigan, including the statewide loan system known as Michigan eLibrary Catalog, or MeLCat, which allows library cardholders to borrow books and other materials from libraries throughout the state and have them delivered to their home library.

It's an especially important service in rural Michigan, where local libraries often lack extensive collections. 

“People having access is absolutely the No. 1 value that libraries hold,” Mikula said. “Access for anyone, for free … but every library can’t hold thousands and thousands of books.”

In northern Michigan’s Indian River, for instance, the local library operates out of a small stone building that doubles as the municipal offices and police department. 

Room for bookshelves is limited, so about half of all materials patrons check out each month come from interlibrary loans.

“Losing that would be a huge impact on our library,” said Kelsey Rutkowski, the library’s director.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services also funds the Michigan elibrary databases, which library patrons can use to access everything from research papers to children’s educational games and career and college prep materials.

And it awards about $4 million annually in grants to individual Michigan libraries and museums. Grants last year included $190,000 to make the Michigan State University Museum collection more accessible for people with visual impairments, $406,000 to improve the archives at the Motown Museum and $150,000 for writing workshops put on by the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe.

Beyond that, the federal agency provides consultants to help small museums improve their programs, such as instructing the volunteers who run a local history museum about how to preserve their artifacts when they can’t afford the climate-controlled storage rooms often found at bigger museums.

What happens next?

Agencies targeted in the order have until Friday to comply. So far, officials have given no hints about what they plan to cut.

Library and museum officials in Michigan and other states are urging lawmakers to intervene in hopes of stopping the ordered cuts. And they’re preparing for conversations in Lansing about backfilling federal cuts with state dollars.

“If the federal government, which is really the most efficient entity to distribute these public funds and public support, isn’t available to do that anymore, then state and local and private (funders) are going to be needed,” said Lisa Craig Brisson, executive director of the Michigan Museums Association.

Meanwhile, individual libraries are warning their patrons about potential reductions in services.

“It is hard to know where we will be in six months as things seem to change minute by minute,” officials with the Superior District Library in Sault Ste. Marie posted on the library’s Facebook page. 

Noting that some of Trump’s executive orders have eventually been walked back or challenged in court, they added, “Please do not panic.”