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MARKETING LIBRARY SERVICES
The Worst National Library Week Ever
by Kathy Dempsey
National Library Week (NLW) was April 6–12, 2025. I started writing this a few days later, and I feel like I’m looking back at the worst National Library Week ever, due to the loss of IMLS. As many non-librarians have now learned, this is the agency that distributes federal grant money throughout the country, and it is the main source of federal funding for museums and libraries.
It wasn’t hard to see this coming. Back in the 45th presidential administration, there were attempts to shutter IMLS in all four annual budget proposals, which Publishers Weekly discussed (tinyurl.com/mvvdwkve).
The first time, a coalition of corporations formed to fight for federal library funding, according to American Libraries (tinyurl.com/4s3ddc5t). Corporate Committee for Library Investment (CCLI), along with a multitude of others, ran a grassroots advocacy campaign during spring and summer 2017 (libraryjournal.com/story/federal-budget-request-seeks-defund-imls-cultural-agencies) and ultimately prevailed.
In February 2018, the administration tried anew to cut IMLS and other cultural agencies from the 2019 federal budget proposal. Library groups sprang back into action, in even bigger numbers. According to a Library Journal article, the advocates followed the best practice of using consistent messaging across a large group: “Every message accompanying the press releases, information sites, and toolkits—whether from professional, political, academic, or nonprofit sources—shares the same basic point: the need to keep the advocacy momentum [that was] generated in the past year’s work for library and cultural funding. The fight was not over with the authorization of the FY18 budget, and may not be over for some time” (libraryjournal.com/story/federal-budget-request-seeks-defund-imls-cultural-agencies). How true that turned out to be.
As Publishers Weely noted, in the proposed FY2020 budget, the closure battle continued for the third straight year (tiny url.com/bd3t3c27). And of course, closure was initially called for again in the FY2021 budget (imls.gov/news/imls-statement-presidents-fy-2021-budget-proposal). Thanks to a lot of lobbying, advocacy, and pro-library congresspeople, IMLS survived all four attacks, and even got budget increases each time. In a December 2020 press release, then-ALA president Julius C. Jefferson Jr., said, “ALA welcomes the $5 million increase for IMLS in FY2021. Library advocates have overcome four consecutive attempts by the White House to eliminate the agency and have increased funding for IMLS by $26 million since 2016” (tinyurl.com/49dap8at).
Crisis Averted … Until It Wasn’t
Given all that, it seemed obvious that if the same person won the presidency again, he would make more attempts to shutter IMLS. Indeed, this time around, he had a better understanding of government and a more cooperative group of sycophants, and so, with the stroke of a Sharpie, the deed was done quickly. Here’s is a quick overview of recent events, as of this writing.
March 14, 2025: The president signs an executive order to continue “the reduction in the elements of the Federal bureaucracy that the President has determined are unnecessary” (tinyurl.com/ymfb48zh). IMLS’s statutory functions were to be reduced but not eliminated.
March 20: The director of IMLS, library professional Cyndee Landrum, is replaced by Keith E. Sonderling, the deputy secretary of labor.
March 31: All IMLS staff members are dismissed. As NPR reported, “According to a statement from AFGE Local 3403, which represents IMLS workers, the agency’s staff was notified by email about being placed on paid administrative leave for up to 90 days, after a ‘brief meeting between DOGE staff and IMLS leadership.’ Employees had to turn in government property, and email accounts were disabled” (tinyurl.com/fw95a23x). At this point, the effort to get citizens to call and complain is taken up by the advocacy tool 5 Calls (5calls.org/issue/institute-museum-library-services-imls-ala).
April 7: ALA, along with AFSCME (the largest union representing museum and library workers), sues the administration over its dismantling of IMLS (schoollibraryjournal.com/story/ALA-Sues-Trump-Administration-Over-Dismantling-IMLS).
Unless this action is quickly reversed, this disastrous turn of events will hit CIL readers where they live: right in their computers and e-resources. That all of this happened in the days leading up to NLW made me feel that much worse. And the events became a major part of local NLW headlines, in papers such as The Orange County Register in California with “National Library Week 2025 Lands Amid Book Bans, Budget Cuts, Job Losses” (tinyurl.com/2s4ddu7b) and The Seattle Times with “Libraries, Which Inspire, Inform and Welcome All, Are Now Expendable” (tinyurl.com/4jxf6wh3).
May 1: The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted a temporary restraining order to block the dismantling of IMLS, in response to the lawsuit filed by ALA and AFSCME.
May 8: A brief email told Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden that she was being fired, effectively immediately.
The Anger and the Agony
I’m really steamed about this on so many levels. First and most obviously, the fact that our government has actually ceased all federal monies for libraries and museums is bad enough. But this was made worse by the fact that the executive order—and especially the dismissal of the staff—meant that all work and all monies froze instantly. Libraries that had already been awarded grants and were in the midst of using them may never see any unpaid portion of the money. Nobody knows whether the grants will exist in the future.
The second reason this disturbs me so much is that I, like many of you, have devoted my career to libraries. To see a main source of funding pulled from public libraries in an instant—especially under the false premise of saving money when we all know librarians rarely waste a dime—is almost physically painful. Knowing this is a political move meant to remove one of the few remaining pieces of the social safety net doesn’t sit too well with me either.
The third reason might be unique to me. What I do for librarians via my small business, Libraries Are Essential, is teach them how to do more and better marketing and communications. While I realize that marcom itself would not have prevented this targeted political attack, I know it would’ve helped on other levels.
I imagine how this situation might progress differently if most of us had unabashedly pro-library governors or representatives right now—someone who would eagerly join our fight to restore funding and respect to libraries. Wouldn’t it be great if your organization or state cooperative already had a huge mailing list of supporters that you could now use to push letters and calls to Washington, D.C.? Or maybe you’d settle for having the majority of the public understand how libraries work, so they wouldn’t believe the disinformation that’s come to surround our field.
I wish we’d all done more publicity and cultivated more advocates while we had the chance. I wish more people had taken the advice that I, and other marcom professionals, have been giving out for decades, such as:
- Make marketing a priority—give it a line in your budget.
- Promote the great value of libraries, and tout their ROI.
- Don’t talk only about your programs—talk about your financial and educational value to your communities.
- Speak in one unified voice with a clear message.
- Get people on your side now, so you’re prepared when (not if) you suddenly need support.
Now, here we are, and I don’t feel we were ready to act. Where is the national strategy? ALA is running its Show Up for Our Libraries campaign, and there’s a clear list of actions to take at ilovelibraries.org/article/ten-ways-to-show-up-for-libraries, but I don’t know how effective that effort is. EveryLibrary is back to publicizing the saveimls.org site. Sadly, I don’t think this presidential administration will notice any clapback that doesn’t involve a courtroom.
What the Comments Tell Us
Although it’s not good for my mental health, I read the online comments. I do it because I believe you can’t overtake your foes if you don’t understand them. And the many comments I’ve slogged through have shown me several trends.
One trend is that the people who make anti-library comments are mostly parroting the same talking points. They seem to be sharing (or pasting) the same disinformation. This happens a lot in book-banning threads. So, folks are being influenced by groups such as Moms for Liberty, Turning Point USA, Texas Values, and Growing Freedom for Idaho.
A newer sort of comment that’s emerged in the weeks since the IMLS closed is, “Libraries get most of their funding from states and cities; they don’t need this federal money.” Since when do laypeople know anything about different pots of library funding? They’ve likely been given this line to use against anyone who’s “being dramatic” about losing these grants. The other comment that’s had a resurgence lately is, “Why are my taxes even paying for libraries? They should be paid for just by the people who use them.” (Give me strength!)
An unfortunate trend is that messages that come from our side usually sound like legal gibberish, are overly formal, and are unclear to laypeople. I understand that when an organization such as ALA puts out official statements, they’re going to be dry. But why can’t it also put out more-user-friendly messages with less lingo? Abandon the elitist language and run PSAs that say something clear, such as, “Your public library just lost federal funding, and it’s in real trouble. If you love libraries, please do [specific call to action] today!”
Our organizations’ communication professionals could have had messages like this waiting in the wings to be prepared for this eventuality. Heck, we might have even been proactive for a change, but IMLS was quickly shuttered—and we’re hanging our hopes on lawsuits against a foe that seems to have an endless supply of lawyers.
But hoping isn’t going to get us anywhere, and making social media posts isn’t enough. Every external communication that any of us puts out needs to include a strategic, clear, and simple call to action. If your messages get people all riled up but then don’t give them any way to act on the situation, you’ve wasted your time. So be sure to tell people precisely what you want them to do after reading your message: Call this phone number, sign this petition, show up at this event, or donate at this link.
A Call to Action for Each of You
Of course, the shuttering of IMLS worries all of us. And we should absolutely fight it. But remember this: It’s just one small act of the GOP’s “flooding the zone” strategy. This executive order that affected us is one of many that’s challenging and/or defunding faultless agencies. These political moves are meant to keep millions of folks so worried about their own fields, jobs, and causes that we can miss the bigger picture. So don’t be too myopic.
Read up about authoritarian takeovers in recent history, and note the similarities with what’s happening in America now. Taking funds from libraries is part of this, but the overall idea of government leaders trying to control people and information is more important. Don’t take your eyes off that ball. Keep resisting, as safely as you can.
Oh, and get ready for more—this defunding campaign won’t stop with IMLS. Local leaders are already trying to take money, workers, and leaders from libraries at the state, county, and city levels. The tasks I mentioned earlier in this article still need to be continued or started ASAP. Even if IMLS is magically reincarnated, the attacks will keep coming. It’s vital that all of us keep driving home the message that public libraries actually help municipalities and people save money.
Let’s look at six things that I wish each public library system would do.
- Put some money into marketing, for goodness’ sake. Even just $500 can help get the attention you need (“Empowering Georgia’s Rural and Small Public Libraries to Do Their Own Marketing,” by Deborah Hakes. Marketing Library Services, November/December 2021).
- Plan a small strategic campaign to send powerful messages to your most important stakeholders (especially funders) about what your organization offers and what constituents would miss without it (“Want Your Messages to Lead to Action? Use the PAS Writing Structure,” by Patrick “PC” Sweeney. Marketing Library Services, July/August 2024).
- Build your mailing lists, and use them for more than newsletters and program calendars (“Building Political Power With Email Lists,” by Patrick “PC” Sweeney. Marketing Library Services, May/June 2024. infotoday.com/mls/may24/Sweeney--Building-Political-Power-With-Email-Lists.shtml).
- Prepare and practice a few convincing talking points to use in interviews or conversations (“Not Good With Elevator Speeches? Try ‘Taxi Chats,’” by Kathy Dempsey. Marketing Library Services, May/June 2014).
- Remember that telling sweet stories isn’t effective with many listeners. Some will only respond to numbers, so publicize your efficient use of funding by illustrating how much monetary value folks get by using your products and services (ilovelibraries.org/calculator).
- Also, talk up the business side of public libraries. There was an amazing statistic in a February 2019 Library Journal article: “In a statement released February 14 on behalf of CCLI by cofounder Gale, a Cengage company, the organization reiterated its message: ‘Libraries are worth the investment. Libraries and library businesses themselves spend more than $8 billion on goods and services provided by thousands of businesses’” (libraryjournal.com/story/federal-budget-request-seeks-defund-imls-cultural-agencies). Of course, America’s roughly 9,000 library systems, with their 17,000 locations, all support national and local economies with their spending.
As I write this in late April, things look grim. But we can’t give up. Instead, we should redouble our political advocacy, our talking-points practice, and our value promotions. Again, don’t forget to keep your eye on the bigger picture. Libraries’ role as purveyors of free, vetted information can help a lot of causes in addition to our own. |
