The Queue: Library News for the Week Ending April 11, 2025

Coming amid a host of threats, this year’s National Library Week has delivered an important reminder about the power and importance of advocacy. Two lawsuits filed last week to stop the Trump Administration’s dismantling of the IMLS—one by a coalition of 21 states, and another by the American Library Association—show one way to stand up. But multiple local reports this week also show the importance of showing up for libraries in the legislative process.

We begin in Ohio, where, ahead of a critical vote this week on library funding, the Ohio Library Council thanked “the tens of thousands of Ohioans who reached out to their Ohio House Members in the past week," for sharing "their personal stories of how their local libraries have positively impacted their lives.” But the OLC notes that the controversial budget measure now moving to the state senate allocates only $490 million for libraries in 2026 and $500 million in 2027—$90.8 million short of Governor Mike DeWine’s recommended funding of $531 million in 2026 and $549 million in 2027. “This gap is concerning, as it directly impacts the ability of libraries to continue providing essential services that benefit all Ohioans,” OLC’s Michelle Francis, said in a statement, adding that the voices of library supporters “are essential in underscoring the importance of libraries as vital community hubs across our state.”

Citing “an intense public backlash” against the proposed cuts to funding for Ohio’s libraries, Cleveland.com reporters Chris Quinn and Laura Johnston offered a frank assessment, and sought to tamp down some media headlines that touted the House’s decision to restore a small amount of funding from their initial cut. “At issue is the state’s longstanding commitment to allocate 1.75% of state tax revenue to public libraries—a formula that has provided stable, predictable funding for a hundred years,” Quinn explained on Today in Ohio, Cleveland.com’s news podcast. “The attempt to slightly increase the proposed funding seems designed to generate positive headlines while still fundamentally changing how libraries are funded. ‘They’re getting the headlines they want… They’re restoring library funding. No, they’re not,’ Quinn added.”

And a sign of hope, potentially, as the budget process moves on: the Ohio Capital Journal reports that library advocates are showing up in numbers and being heard by state legislators. In the piece, Governor Mike DeWine offered some sound advice for library advocates. “Asked for tips on advocating as the budget moves on to the Senate, the governor said engaging directly with the senators in individual districts would make the most impact and give them the perspective of those in their communities,” the report states. “We all react to people, and we react to stories,” DeWine told reporters. “Statistics are interesting, stories are people.”

Mixed news from Arkansas, where Tess Vrbin at the Arkansas Advocate reports that SB 536, a bill that would have abolished the state library and its board and impose content restrictions on libraries, was rejected by a House committee this week, “making it difficult for the proposal to make it to the governor’s desk by the end of the legislative session April 16.” But the following day, Vrbin reports in a separate article, Arkansas lawmakers passed a new bill that would allow Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders to remove and replace all seven members of the State Library Board.

“Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, filed the bill Wednesday night, less than two hours after a House committee rejected Senate Bill 536, a proposal to abolish both the State Library and its board and transfer their powers and responsibilities to the Arkansas Department of Education,” the report explains. “The seven-member State Library Board disburses state funds to public libraries on a quarterly basis. It has appeared ‘fairly dysfunctional’ at its recent meetings, so the Legislature should ‘wipe the board clean,’ Dismang told the Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs.”

The Maine State Library reports that fallout from the Trump administration’s attack on the IMLS is costing people jobs and hurting the public. “Due to continued challenges in accessing federal funding, the Maine State Library will temporarily close and reorganize its operations. This decision follows layoff notices issued this week to 13 employees whose positions are funded through a program grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS),” a statement on the library website reads.

“IMLS support accounts for approximately 30% of the library’s annual budget, and the 13 affected employees represent about 30% of its staff. Should access to federal funding be reinstated, the layoffs may be reversed.” Library officials said they haven’t received any funds since March 24, nor have they “received any further communication from the federal government regarding if-or when funding will be restored.” The library tentatively plans to reopen to the public on April 28, 2025. Maine is one of 21 states currently suing to block the Trump administration’s bid to shutter IMLS.

Chilling news from Mississippi this week as Mississippi Today reports on a memo from the Mississippi Library Commission ordering the deletion of two research collections hosted by EBSCO, one focused on “race relations” and the other on “gender studies,” to comply with a new state censorship law. “The memo, written by Mississippi Library Commission Executive Director Hulen Bivins, confirmed the scrubbing of scholarly material from a database used by publicly funded schools, libraries, community colleges, universities, and state agencies,” the report states. “The memo was sent out on the same day Mississippi lawmakers filed their final version of House Bill 1193. The measure bans diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI programs, and a list of ‘divisive concepts’ from public schools across the state education system.”

In Kentucky, the Lexington Herald Leader reports that the library is getting rid of several LGBTQ-themed events, with a library spokesperson saying the events were deemed to be underperforming. “Library Director Heather Dieffenbach said the institution is committed to supporting the queer community and will not cancel all LGBTQ+ programming,” the article reports. Members of the LGBTQ community, however, appear skeptical. “Jay Stringer-Vaught, a queer librarian who founded the Lesch Lending Library housed at the University of Kentucky’s LGBTQ+ Resource Center, said he is concerned the library will get rid of programs that help underserved communities over fear of losing funds or calls to remove collections,” the article adds. “Consider who gets put on the chopping block. Self-censoring programs sends a damaging message to the LGBTQ community, especially to our youth,” Stringer-Vaught told reporters.

 In Texas, KWTX has a look at what’s next for Senate Bill 13, a proposal that would give politicians the final say over what goes on public school library shelves throughout the state. “Under SB 13 each school district would be required to have a ‘Local School Library Advisory Council’ to give recommendations, and the school board would have the final say over new books,” the report notes. “On March 19th SB 13 passed the Senate in a 23 to 8 vote, meaning it will now go to a committee within the house where some are hopeful it will pass, while others hope it won’t.”

In Nevada, the Reno Gazette Journal reports on a freedom to read law introduced in the state legislature. The bill, Assembly Bill 416 seeks to prevent "any school board, school employees, or anyone else from limiting access to library materials. This includes removing them, moving them to other sections of the library to conceal them, labeling them based on the type of content in them, or defacing them to hide content," the article notes. "AB 416 would also make it against the law for someone to threaten or coerce a student from using or accessing specific library materials, or threaten a school board trustee to violate the law to remove a book from the library."

The New York Times has the full list of 381 books Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered removed from the Naval Academy Library. "Maya Angelou’s seminal autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and books on the Holocaust were included on the Navy’s list of that were removed from the U.S. Naval Academy’s Nimitz Library on the Annapolis, Md., campus this week because their subject matter was seen as being related to so-called diversity, equity and inclusion topics."

Torrent Freak reports that a settlement could be coming in a closely watched copyright infringement case filed by several major record labels against the Internet Archive over its Great 78 Project, which digitizes and makes available old sound recordings. “In a joint filing, the parties asked the court to pause the lawsuit for thirty days so they can work on finalizing a deal. No terms are mentioned, but a resolution outside of court seems realistic,” the site reports. “Specifically, IA and the music labels state that they have ‘made significant progress in settlement discussions’ and are ‘optimistic that settlement discussions may be successful and that this case can be dismissed.’”

Meanwhile, the Internet Archive blog this week is featuring posts from its recent report: Vanishing Culture: A Report on Our Fragile Cultural Record, which is available for download. In one essay, IA founder Brewster Kahle writes about the threat facing libraries in the digital realm.

“To preserve the library system’s ability to help create an informed citizenry, we need libraries to buy, preserve, and offer free public access to the broad public. Our libraries have traditionally supported local authors and local publishers, and preserved a broad range of text, audio, and moving image materials. Libraries, when not stopped, have moved with the times, through microfilm and CD-ROMs, and now to the Internet in order to provide preservation and access. Our collective budgets in the United States support over 5% of all trade publishing revenues—enough to cause a leveraged buyout firm, KKR, to find buying major publisher Simon and Schuster a good investment. Our libraries are a captive market for a shrinking number of academic and trade publishers,” Kahle writes. “Our evolving digital age can be our next Carnegie moment, or it can be a Library of Alexandria moment. It is up to us.”

Penguin Random House and United for Libraries have announced the 51 recipients of a new grant program serving rural and small libraries across the country. "The cash grants, totaling $25,000, are being awarded to support libraries in need: 19 cash grants of $1,000 and 12 cash grants of $500. Grant funds will assist Friends of Library groups, or nonprofit groups that support and raise funds for libraries in their communities, with priority projects, including summer reading programs for youth, outreach to seniors, bookmobile improvements, technology upgrades, Friends group development, and more. In addition to the cash grants awarded, 20 in-kind book donation grants of $500 are being awarded to 20 libraries to purchase Penguin Random House titles."

“During a time when the future of public libraries is under attack, our collaboration with United for Libraries is more important than ever as we work together to support these vital institutions and ensure that every American has the right to access the resources they need to thrive,” said Skip Dye, Senior Vice President of Library Sales and Digital Strategy at Penguin Random House. “Small and rural libraries in particular are essential to their communities and we are thankful to have the opportunity to provide them with this meaningful support.”

On the LibraryPass website, Guy LeCharles Gonzalez posts about the most popular comics on the all-you-can-read service for the first quarter of 2025, making a cogent observation: "Unlike typical bestsellers lists heavily influenced by marketing budgets and traditional pre-publication reviews, the vast majority of our most popular titles were published before 2024," he observes. "Backlist is frontlist for the majority of readers, and when there aren’t barriers to access, many of them will choose an older book they missed when it was first released rather than wait for the hot title du jour to become available, especially if they’re into genres that aren’t as well-represented in single-user collections."

And finally this week, via American Libraries, the ALA election results are in, and Maria McCauley, director of libraries at Cambridge (Mass.) Public Library, has been elected 2027–2027 president of ALA. McCauley received 5,483 votes. Her opponent, Lindsay Cronk, dean of libraries at Tulane University in New Orleans, received 2,665 votes. McCauley has held several leadership positions, including at-large councilor of ALA Council, ALA Executive Board member, and member of ALA’s Fiscal and Audit Committee. She also served as 2022–2023 PLA president and as a PLA board member.

“I am honored to be elected president of the American Library Association for 2026–2027 and grateful to everyone who voted,” McCauley said in a statement. “I look forward to working with library workers and advocates across every type of library in the United States and internationally. We can support, inspire, and learn from each other as we seek to improve the excellent library services that we provide for our communities. We will also continue to advocate for and celebrate the power of libraries to transform lives.”

ALA president Cindy Hohl will hand the reins over to current ALA president-elect Sam Helmick at the conclusion of the 2025 ALA Annual Conference, set to run from June 26-30, in Philadelphia, with McCauley to step in as president-elect. McCauley’s term as president will begin at the conclusion of the 2026 ALA Annual Conference, which will be held in Chicago.