Philadelphia in recent years has had only two full-time librarians in a school district with 216 schools and 118,000 students. It鈥檚 a challenge Debra Kachel, an affiliate faculty member at Antioch University, has been working to solve.
Kachel is partnering with the district on a federal grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to study how other urban school systems rebuilt their school library programs and funded training for a new generation of librarians. Using the findings, the plan for the project is to develop a long-term plan to restore school library services in Philadelphia and train school librarians.
But following layoffs and grant cancellations at the federal institute last week as President Donald Trump鈥檚 administration seeks to close the small agency, Kachel is concerned her project is in jeopardy.
鈥淲hile everyone always says they love libraries, they support libraries, libraries are wonderful, when it comes to funding libraries, that鈥檚 a different conversation,鈥� said Kachel, who previously led another project investigating a declining number of school libraries and librarians that received institute funding.
More than a dozen recipients of Institute of Museum and Library Services grants received late-night emails last week alerting them that their awards were suddenly canceled, effective April 4, according to the American Federation of Government Employees, a union that represents many federal employees.
Though Kachel did not receive that message, she and her colleagues are unclear and concerned about the future of their grant.
The cancellations came as the Trump administration ramped up its efforts to shutter the museum and library services institute, the largest source of federal funding for the nation鈥檚 libraries and museums. The institute was among seven agencies President Donald Trump named in a recent executive order that directed the agencies to close themselves down 鈥渢o the maximum extent鈥� allowed by law.
Soon after the executive order, the institute placed its entire workforce of 77 employees on administrative leave, but then brought back roughly a dozen to carry out the agency鈥檚 legally required obligations, according to a staff member who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The downsizing and Trump鈥檚 order drew litigation on Friday, with 21 state attorneys general and asking a federal judge to halt the closure of the institute and two other small agencies. Also on Friday, two Democrats on the U.S. House of Representatives鈥� education and workforce committee seeking documents and more information on how the institute is winding down its operations in response to Trump鈥檚 executive order.
The largest portion of the Institute of Museum and Library Services鈥� budget is its state grants program that has sent more than $160 million annually to all states in recent years to support general library services statewide as well as some education-focused services such as library tutoring programs and professional development for teachers.
Lisa Guernsey, director of the Learning Sciences Exchange at New America, a nonpartisan research organization based in Washington, said Congress has the ultimate say over the future of the museum and library services institute, which was formed in 1996 and reauthorized in 2018 during Trump鈥檚 first term.
鈥淭he bottom line is: To make cuts this drastic, Congress has to have a say. That鈥檚 how our government is set up,鈥� she said.
An Institute of Museum and Library Services spokesperson didn鈥檛 respond to a request for comment.
The institute has funded a variety of efforts to boost the ranks of school librarians
The ranks of school librarians nationwide have dwindled over the last decade-plus by 鈥攖he equivalent of roughly 10,000 lost positions from 2009 to 2018. Philadelphia exemplifies this trend. In 2023, the city鈥檚 schools employed two full-time librarians across its 216 schools, down from 176 in the early 1990s (when the district had 259 schools).
In response, researchers started looking into strategies Philadelphia could use to restore school librarians, and last year the school district in partnership with the advocacy group received a grant of nearly $150,000 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Kachel, as a PARSL member, led the first part of the project. For a report published earlier this year, she about how they鈥檇 increased their ranks of school librarians, sometimes while facing budget shortfalls and declining enrollment. a positive correlation between reading achievement and having full-time, qualified librarians at schools.
The second and third parts of the proposal involved recruiting students for a librarian certification program and creating a five-year plan to implement school library programs across the district.
Kachel said her team was planning to do a residency program and provide funding for students or part-time librarians to simultaneously complete their school librarian certifications while working full-time in school libraries.
鈥淥ur preliminary thinking was to target the schools that have the most needy students鈥攕tudents who are homeless, students who are in poverty, students of color鈥攚hen their literacy scores are really low,鈥� Kachel said. 鈥淭hose are the schools [where] we were thinking we would set up these school libraries as soon as possible.鈥�
But Kachel worries about whether her plan will work now without key museum and library services institute staff to distribute reimbursements for the PARSL grant or award future funding.
鈥淚n the bigger picture, what we鈥檙e doing here is eliminating people鈥檚 right to information,鈥� Kachel said, 鈥渁nd we are only going to get the information sources that a Trump executive office wants us to have.鈥�
Other institute grants have supported training for school librarians and efforts to boost their ranks.
Deborah Rinio, an assistant teaching professor and program leader for the library media certificate program at Montana State University, completed her institute-funded project in 2020, also with an eye toward boosting the ranks of school librarians, particularly with knowledge to serve Indigenous communities. The project鈥檚 goal was to redesign the curriculum of Montana State鈥檚 library media certificate program to train more certified school librarians, but also to train them on 鈥淚ndigenous perspective and culturally responsive pedagogy,鈥� Rinio said.
The project funded scholarships so 30 students in Montana and Alaska could attend the program and apply it toward their certification. The grant also allowed the project members to put together an advisory board of experts and consultants on creating an Indigenous-focused school librarian preparation curriculum.
Other services that help students are affected by institute cuts
Sometimes, school libraries don鈥檛 have the materials students need, so public libraries step in. But their services are also facing uncertainty from the downsizing at the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
The interlibrary loan system for Michigan鈥檚 libraries often helps smaller libraries across the state get students books they need. But that system is at risk as the institute鈥檚 state grants program faces uncertainty, said Deborah Mikula, executive director of the Michigan Library Association.
鈥淚t鈥檚 taken 20 years to put together a very solid, very stable, very efficient system with very few dollars that are coming from our federal government that are somewhat unmatched by our state government,鈥� Mikula said.
For now, the system will keep operating, but its future is uncertain, as librarians are unsure of what will happen when the time comes to request reimbursement for grant-covered expenses and renew their funding, she said. Every state has a different timeline for requesting reimbursement.
A public library in Columbus, Miss., already 鈥攁n app that lets library card holders access audiobooks and e-books鈥攂ecause of the suspension of grant processing as the federal institute has shrunken its staff.
鈥淲e may start feeling, and families may start feeling, a thousand little cuts from this, as well as some larger cuts that can really do some harm and make life harder for families,鈥� said Guernsey, from New America.
