Political issues affecting libraries across the country are also hitting home locally, with Traverse Area District Library (TADL) trustees Thursday set to discuss a response to an executive order eliminating the Institute of Museum and Library Services – the only federal agency dedicated to funding library services – and a request to remove an award-winning children’s author from bookshelves due to LGBTQ+ content.

An executive order issued by the Trump administration Friday dismantled seven federal agencies, including the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, the U.S. Agency for Global Media – parent company of Voice of America – and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The IMLS is an independent agency supporting libraries, archives, and museums in all 50 states and U.S. territories, awarding $266.7 million to those institutions in 2024. Trump ordered that the agency be gutted “to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,” which prompted the American Library Association (ALA) to issue a public statement blasting the administration’s “assault” on libraries.

“By eliminating the only federal agency dedicated to funding library services, the Trump administration’s executive order is cutting off at the knees the most beloved and trusted of American institutions and the staff and services they offer,” the ALA wrote. “To dismiss some 75 committed workers and mission of an agency that advances opportunity and learning is to dismiss the aspirations and everyday needs of millions of Americans. And those who will feel that loss most keenly live in rural communities.”

The ALA said the country’s 125,000 public, school, academic, and special libraries “deserve more, not less support,” adding that while libraries translate to only 0.003 percent of the federal budget, their programs and services are accessed through more than 1.2 billion in-person visits annually, plus many more virtual visits. TADL Library Director Michele Howard says that IMLS funnels funding to the Library of Michigan, which then “uses those funds to provide services to all Michiganders.” The largest funded items are the Michigan eLibrary databases and MeLCat, the statewide interlibrary loan service.

“Databases and interlibrary loans are funded 75 percent from IMLS and 25 percent from the state legislature,” Howard says. “This means that if IMLS is dismantled, the Library of Michigan will no longer be able to provide the databases and MeLCat will have to shut down.” Approximately 50 TADL patrons use MeLCat every day to request materials from around the state, Howard says. The Library of Michigan provides grants to libraries like TADL for other programming that would also be eliminated under the cuts. Such grants have helped TADL pay for STEM kits for all five county libraries, summer reading programs, and professional education stipends for staff, among other allocations. Museums would also be impacted: NMC’s Dennos Museum Center posted Monday that IMLS grants have helped fund several collection projects, including sculpture storage, artwork archival bins, and painting racks totaling roughly $80,000 in equipment upgrades.

Howard says TADL’s Larry Gorton Talking Book Library – which won a national award from the Library of Congress in 2024 and provides free audio and Braille materials to 400+ visually, physically, and reading impaired patrons across northern Michigan – receives about half its funding from national grants. “We haven’t heard yet if that’s lost funding, but that would be a devastating loss for people who have trouble reading traditional print materials in our community,” Howard says. At TADL’s 4pm board meeting Thursday, trustees will consider issuing a joint statement to elected officials requesting their support for libraries and their pushback against the cuts. Trustees could also ask legislators to boost Michigan’s own funding for libraries to make up the difference.

TADL trustees Thursday will also discuss a “request for reconsideration” – a patron’s request to remove a title from TADL shelves. The book in question is “Grandad’s Pride,” a children’s book by award-winning author Harry Woodgate about a child who helps their grandfather start a Pride parade in their small town. The patron expressed concerns about imagery in the book – including a character wearing leather gear in the Pride parade – and asked TADL to keep the book behind a desk. Howard says such a request is the same as removal to TADL, since the move would significantly limit the book’s availability to patrons. Thus, the request went through the library’s process for challenged materials, which includes patrons submitting a form outlining their concerns and then a committee of Howard and two other TADL department heads reviewing the request.

TADL averages less than one such request a year, Howard says. The committee reviewed “Grandad’s Pride” – all members are required to read the book in its entirety prior to their review – and denied the patron’s request. Howard notes that denial is a common outcome, in part because employees already follow “stringent procedures” before introducing any materials into TADL’s collection. Youth Services Department employees outlined that procedure in a memo encouraging trustees to keep the book in circulation, noting they look at factors including professional book reviews, circulation data, other books by the author, and local interest considerations – like the “strong Pride community in the Traverse City region” – before adding books. “No book should be moved because of its content to a private shelf away from the free, public space that is the library,” staff wrote.

However, patrons have a right to appeal the committee’s decision to the TADL board of trustees, which happened in this case. Howard says it’s the first time in library staff’s memory such a request has been elevated to trustees, whose decision is final. Numerous groups have written to TADL opposing the book’s removal, including ACLU Michigan – which said restricting book access violates the First Amendment – as well as Friends of TADL and the League of Women Voters of the Grand Traverse Area. The LWVGTA said that “the freedom to read and access written materials is a cornerstone of a free and democratic society” and urged trustees to “stand firm in fighting any form of censorship and in protecting the rights of our free society to have access to any materials contained in the Traverse Area District Libraries.”

Howard acknowledges that not all library materials are appropriate for all ages. TADL’s policy leaves that discretion up to parents, who have the “right and duty” to monitor content for patrons under 18, she says. TADL intentionally offers a wide variety of materials knowing that “not everyone is going to read everything,” with some patrons disliking or disapproving of materials that others find valuable or useful. “We respect a parent’s right to choose what their children read,” Howard says. “But they can’t choose what someone else’s children read.”