California libraries losing millions of funds after the end of Trump.

California libraries are preparing for reductions in early literacy, access to information and continuing education programs after the Trump administration’s last efforts to reduce federal spending targeted the country’s libraries and museums.

The California State Library, which supports local libraries and maintains its own collection, said it was informed this week that a key federal subsidy of support programs through the State had been terminated, losing at least $ 3 million in funding that had already been awarded.

The brutal judgment of the subsidy occurs in the middle of the disorders of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, an independent federal agency which provides the majority of federal support for the country’s libraries, and at least seven other targeted agencies in one of the realistic decrees of President Trump which aimed for an “additional reduction in federal bureaucracy”. A large part of the agency staff focused on the library was put on administrative leave this week after Trump called for a majority of his functions, as well as several others, to be eliminated to the extent maximum in accordance with the applicable law “.

Friday, following this last series of federal layoffs and programs and services discounts on which millions of Californians depend, Atty. General Rob Bonta said that his office had filed another prosecution against the Trump administration, arguing that the decree and funding reductions exceed the President’s power and violated the Act respecting the administrative procedure. The trial, filed with several other attorney general prosecutors, underlined the reductions of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Development Agency for Minority Business and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

These agencies “were forced to widen their staff, the shutter operations and the end of the congress programs ordered them to provide them,” said Bonta on Friday afternoon at a virtual press conference. “This is only the last decision of Trump’s sieve campaign to dismantle the federal government, leave the federal workers high and dry and refuse services to the Americans on which they count.”

In a statement on Thursday, California State Library said that it had not yet received more than 20% of a subsidy of $ 15.7 million granted under the Library and Technology Services Act for Fiscount 2024-2025. The funds had been distributed to support a wide range of programs through California libraries, including low-income history, summer reading initiatives, labor reading skills for young people at risk and opportunities to obtain online secondary diplomas.

“We are deeply disappointed by this ill -informed decision, which immediately affects the critical programs supported by these funds,” said Rebecca Wendt, the deputy librarian of California, in a statement. “The California State Library remains determined to serve all the inhabitants of California and will explore alternative means to ensure continuous access to the essential library services.”

The American Library Assn. Called the staff discounts and cuts at the Institute for Museum and Library Services “extremely at short views and perilous for millions of Americans who count on our public, school, university and special libraries”.

“Library financing attracts less than 0.003% of the annual federal budget, but has a huge impact in communities nationwide,” the association said in a press release. “Technology lessons for job seekers to services for disabled people, from libraries to delivery for older Americans to summer reading programs for families, Imls funds made a real concrete difference in the lives of Americans every day.”

It was not immediately clear how lost funds could affect specific library programs in the County of Los Angeles, but Skye Patrick, the county librarian, said that he would likely limit future programming if the federal subsidy program remains inactive.

“We have recently submitted applications for subsidies to support programs for adolescents, sustainability and music,” Patrick said in a statement. “The loss of this financing opportunity could affect our ability to provide these enriching programs to the community. We hope that future support for subsidies (the Library and Technology Services Act) will allow libraries to continue to promote education, creativity and membership for all. ”

A request for comments from the IMLS was not immediately answered.