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Other items of interest

White House Targets Library Services

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Depending on the era, librarians and library trustees have not been immune from attacks on library collections. What is different today is the scope and scale of the intent to thwart basic library services.

Within the tsunami of Executive Orders coming from the Oval Office, libraries and museums came under attack on March 14. By Monday, March 31, ALL staff at the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) were placed on leave. And, State Library Agencies were notified that their federally funded grants were terminated, effective April 1, 2025.

Cloaked in sheep’s clothing under the guise of reducing the federal bureaucracy, this is really a wolf huffing and puffing to blow the house down. While local tax dollars fund a major portion of library operations, in big and small communities, the federal funding is the glue that unites libraries into an effective network sharing system.

In Minnesota, these federal funds which “the President has determined are unnecessary” [Section 1. Purpose] fund a wide range of programs and services affecting daily library operations and individual library users. Among those services in jeopardy but not limited to just these:

black and blue MNLINK logo

MNLINK or statewide interlibrary loan and delivery, which ensures that residents have access to the information needed to fulfill their lives, regardless of geographic location.

graphic respresentation of Minnesota in black, blue, green, gold, and white

Minnesota Digital Library (MDL) – a unique partnership with local history centers and libraries to digitize fragile historical items and provide a snapshot of Minnesota life through the centuries with easy online access to over 60,000 pictures, maps, letters, postcards, and objects.

electronic library of minnesota logo in blue gray and green

eLibrary Minnesota (ELM) – a broad selection of online research databases for users seeking information for class assignments, improving career skills, or seeking reputable medical information.

The entire IMLS budget, including staffing, offices, and the pass-through funding to each state and territory constitutes 0.00146% of the federal budget. An amount so small within a ginormous budget that were this a science experiment an electron microscope would be required yet huge in meeting the needs of individual library users. Please contact your Members of Congress and urge your Senators and Representative to protect federal funding for libraries by preventing the dismantling of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

Graphic credit: show up for our libraries – American Library Association (ALA). MNLINK, MDL, and eLm – Minitex.

Reading

Ruth and Freckleface Banned

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With the firehose of bad decisions spewing forth from this White House, I vacillate between trying to stay informed and wanting to ignore the mistaken path this country blithely follows. As a former children’s librarian, I am dismayed by the administration’s recent order to remove certain picture books from U.S. military schools. In an unstable world with bombs hitting targets in Gaza and Ukraine and civil wars in Sudan and Myanmar, I would think the Department of Defense would have more relevant tasks to undertake than pulling from its school library shelves Freckleface Strawberry by Julianne Moore and No Truth Without Ruth by Kathleen Krull.

Here is a brief synopsis in case you are not familiar with these two picture books.

  • No Truth Without Ruth – An age-appropriate biography of the life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, from a small girl who chipped a tooth while twirling a baton to Supreme Court Justice making major decisions while donned in a black robe and her signatory lace collar.
  • Freckleface Strawberry – Tired of being teased because of her looks, the story tells of a young girl’s antics to hide her face before accepting her freckles.

While I may be eight years into retirement, my long-held belief in intellectual freedom as basic tenet of librarianship still rings true. As defined by the American Library Association: “Intellectual freedom is the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored.”

I encourage you to read these titles for yourself and determine whether these books are, as described by the administration, “radical indoctrination.” I think not but take a look.

Reading

Eric Carle, 1929-2021

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Depending on the day and the conference, visiting library vendor exhibits might be hard work with promises for future negotiations or a simple pleasure.  Some days I could afford the time to stand in line to purchase a signed copy of a much loved book.  There were also those serendipitous moments when I discovered the unlikely opportunity to nab a quick gift for Richard in a nearly empty booth; when the entire encounter from handing the cash to the publishing house rep, to a brief conversation with a favorite writer, to carefully stashing the prized conference loot all occurred within just minutes.  Such was my very brief encounter with Eric Carle one ALA conference day. 

The world is blessed to have had this genius of children’s literature whose many stories and brillant textured art evoked rich reading opportunities and colorful playfulness.