Public libraries have been a staple of American history since the days of the forefathers. According to the Digital Public Library of America, the first public library in the United States opened in 1790 due to to a generous donation from Benjamin Franklin.
Today, libraries have become much more than a place to get books. They've become community centers, a place where anybody can go and make use of many resources and materials- some of which don't require a card to access. Michigan alone has almost 400 public library systems across all 83 counties, with over 600 locations to visit.
If you live within a library's taxpayer range you can get a card for no cost, receiving access to books, movies, music, activities, and so much more.
According to the Michigan Library Association an average of 77% of library operating budgets come from millages, meaning from the taxpayers. But where does the other 23% come from?
Part of this funding comes from a federal program called the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), of which Michigan received over $8 million from in 2024. Some of this is directed towards grants for library systems depending on need, or to museums across the state. Over $1.8 million of these funds go towards a program called MeL, more properly known as the Michigan eLibrary.
MeL allows anybody in Michigan to go online and access a trove of texts, databases, tools, and more- even if you don't have a library card. If the material is only available in a physical form, MeL can send it to your local library for lending at no additional cost to the patron. Over a million items were loaned out across Michigan through MeL in 2024.
The Traverse Area District Library (TADL) in Traverse City sees over 50 requests from MeL daily, with over 28 thousand requests in 2024 alone.
That's according to Michele Howard, TADL's library director. She says MeL is important in rural areas like Northern Michigan, where it's not feasible for people to drive out to a larger library for materials.
"It's a vital service to providing information for careers for students in college that might be attending remotely, or even just general reading pleasure," explained Howard. "I worry for literacy, it really can affect the trajectory of their success in life. We know people who can't read well have trouble filling out forms to get jobs, to go to the military, to just live general life."
Her worries are realistic, with recent statistics showing over 50% of American adults are unable to read at a 6th grade level- a benchmark that could bring trillions to the US economy annually, according to the Barbara Bush Foundation.
On March 14th, President Trump signed an executive order entitled "Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy", which instructed the maximum elimination of IMLS as applicable by law. The department takes up 0.004% of the entire federal budget, according to the Michigan Library Association.
As of March 31st, the entire staff at IMLS has been put on administrative leave after a "brief meeting between DOGE staff and IMLS leadership". Under administrative leave, employees will still receive pay while having no access to work functions. The status of previously awarded grants is now unclear, along with the complete cessation of grant processing and applications. According to the library support group EveryLibrary local libraries now have no way to contact IMLS to get any updates, and it is likely grant programs will be terminated.
MeL is currently paid through September 30th of this year. Nobody knows if the program will continue to exist if federal funding ceases.
"[MeL] is a really popular service, I think it would depend on the library, and there's so much unknown right now that it's hard to wrap your head around the loss that our patrons would feel," Howard said.
Christina Markowski is the Interim Director of the Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library. She told WCMU they have received grants from IMLS indirectly through the Library of Michigan, which have been used for things like upgrading their public computer labs.
"We got new desktops and monitors," said Markowski, "We've used [the grants] for our summer reading program and the digitalization of our local history."
She also mentioned a mobile hotspot, allowing people to check out internet access for a 2 week period thanks to the grants.
"The biggest impact from the grants is MeL, resource sharing for our patrons," Markowski continued. "I had someone who got a manuscript in Mandarin because she wanted to brush up on it, and she got that through MeL. I'd say about half of our patrons use the program."
April 6-12th is this year's National Library Week, featuring the theme "Drawn to the Library!". And people certainly are drawn to their local libraries. A page on Michigan.Gov says around 3.1 million people attended programs in Michigan libraries in 2024.
"We just started The 3rd Place program, which is specifically for ages 20 to 40," said Valerie Meyerson, the director of the Petoskey District Library. "Every 1st and 3rd Tuesday at 6:30 people can come together, play games, have snacks, it's really driven by them and what they want to do as a group. And this all started because somebody said they wanted a place to gather and meet people."
Meyerson said she's not sure how things would work if MeL went down, or if costs ended up being placed onto the libraries themselves.
"We'd have to figure out if this is something we can afford, And if so, what would we have to cut locally because that's not in our current budget," Meyerson explained. "So we'd have to cut something, some other service that we provide locally to give people access to those items."
Multiple libraries even have a "Library of Things", an idea becoming popular across the state. In Alpena, they feature items like outdoor movie kits, sewing machines, even a roaster oven and guitars that can be checked out by the public.
"I've already checked [the roaster oven] out twice because I had to use it for my Thanksgiving turkey," Markowski said.
As Petoskey's Meyerson said, "for every federal dollar spent in Michigan libraries, $27 is returned to communities through the resources made available."
To find your local library to have access to all they have to offer, you can search through the Directory of Public Libraries to find which one services your area.
