Assistant Flagler County Administrator Holly Albanese is preparing the county’s public library system, its Board of Trustees and local officials for possible local consequences of an executive order that seeks to end the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, a mainstay of library and museum funding across the country.
“My understanding of how the cuts from IMLS are affecting libraries is that if you are or have already received funding this fiscal year, you may be asked to return or lose the remainder of the funds not already distributed,” Albanese said.
Albanese, who is also the library system’s director, is still evaluating the local impact. Like her colleagues across the state and the county, much of the effect of the order has not been fully calculated, while attorney generals in 21 states (Florida’s James Uthmeier is not among them) have sued to Trump administration to block the order. But most of IMLS’s staff has already been dismissed. (IMLS has placed 85 percent of its staff on administrative leave, according to a lawsuit.)
“IMLS’s largest program, the Grants to States Program, allocates federal funding to State Library Administrative Agencies, which use those funds to support statewide services and/or to distribute through subgrant competitions to public, academic, school, and special libraries in each state,” Albanese wrote in an email. “This may affect State Aid and all grants, including [Library Services and Technology Act] and construction grants in the State of Florida. We just don’t know how much or when it will start. Will it include this past year or is it next fiscal? Will we lose the construction grant and pay back any money we have received to date?”
Flagler County receives just $20,000 in state aid. “Our passport revenue will more than make up for the loss of State Aid,” Albanese said. In 2022-23, the library processed 3,898 passports, generating over $181,000. (Chances are, 2025 will be a banner passport year: some executive orders make some citizens nervous.)
In the 2023-24 cycle, Flagler County was awarded a $500,000 state construction grant. It is helping to build the $16 million Nexus Center, the South Branch library rising across the street from the Sheriff’s Operations Center in Bunnell. Last year, Albanese secured an additional $4 million grant for the project. It was part of a federally funded broadband program. Though awarded, the status of both those grants is uncertain given the arbitrariness of federal edicts.
“I, of course, am concerned and watching for any changes to the $4m grant and our E-Rate program, which provides a Federal Discount for Internet access.” Albanese wrote. “ At this time the Department of Commerce (Office of Broadband) for the grant and the FCC for E-Rate have not been affected by the cuts.”
On March 14, President Trump ordered the elimination of seven agencies, among them the Institute of Museum and Library Services. A federal agency, IMLS last year awarded $266.7 million in grants to support libraries, museums and similar institutions, $180 million of which went to state governments. Last year $9.5 million was awarded to the State Library of Florida, which in turn dispersed much of the money to local libraries. Half a million dollars went to the Florida Memory program, a freely accessible online library that makes Florida history in photographs, films documents, memoirs and other artifacts available at a click.
Some of IMLS’s money is awarded in direct grants. Florida institutions received $1.2 million last year, including a $150,000 grant to the University of South Florida’s School of Information, a $548,000 grant to the Florida State College of Communication, and $250,000 to the Museum of Discovery and Science in Ft. Lauderdale.
Flagler County’s library system operates on a $1.9 million budget, including $209,000 in capital outlays. It has 18 employees, two of them at the current makeshift Bunnell branch at Marvin’s Garden.
When the Nexus Center opens in November or December, Albanese is asking for six new employees, who will be supplemented by three employees from the Palm Coast branch and the two working in the Bunnell Branch. “As a result, we may need to reduce hours at Palm Coast to offset the loss of staff,” Albanese said. “Of course if we don’t get the staff needed both may be at jeopardy of losing hours. “
The order, like many before it and since, is legally dubious. It may not scrap the agency entirely since it’s established by Congress. But the order can effectively end its operations. Within one week, all seven agencies cited by Trump’s order were required to report that they had achieved “full compliance.”
The lawsuit may yet make much of the anxiety moot, albeit not without considerable disruption in the meantime.
“If the President disagrees with Congress’s decision to support the Nation’s libraries and museums, and enable the peaceful mediation of labor disputes,” the lawsuit states, “he is free to seek legislation abolishing the agencies that perform these—and many other—vital functions. One option that our Constitution does not give the President is to shutter the agencies himself, in defiance of the administrative procedures that Congress required to be followed, the appropriations that Congress ordered to be spent, and the separation of powers that every officer of our government has sworn to uphold. Accordingly, the Closure Order should be declared unlawful, and Defendants’ actions implementing that unlawful order should be vacated.”
Sue says
I go to the library quite a bit I don’t think they would miss 3 people from staff. They never look over.worked to me.
Robin says
This is exactly the playbook that the Nazis employed in the early 1930s. For an examination of how they turned a(weak) republican government into a fascist one, I suggest reading Eric Larson’s book ‘In the Garden of Beasts’. The book is based on the diaries and records of the American Ambassador William Dodd.
The attacks on the media, the overtaking of the German military establishment, defunding government agencies, and attacks on universities, parallel with what is being done today.
My Opinion says
This librarian is bankrupting the county with her legacy projects and extra roles and titles she doesn’t qualify for.
Atwp says
People voted for Trump. They didn’t want an African American woman leading. Now their leader is hurting the country. Good job. Hope fully the country will hurt a lot more.
Deborah Coffey says
Trump is a disaster. Of course, he can’t read and since he thinks he’s God, he needs to remake the world in his own image. What does that mean? You will not read, either.
Tony says
You voted for him so now pay the price !!!!
Nephew Of Uncle Sam says
Orange Jabba does love the poorly educated.
Joseph Barand says
Not a surprise, the dumb f… cannot read or write. Probably never been in a library in his entire life.
Michael John says
Congress’ job approval rating is 19% among citizens. Our Political and Judicial system is corrupted by money, gerrymandering and Lust for power.
Citizens interests are no longer a priority. Donors and Special Interests rule the day. Apparently they don’t like libraries as much as Citizens like libraries. So it’s more important to give the Donors a tax break to keep the money flowing into the Political Coffers. My opinion. ☮️
David Meeks says
LOL! That new library is going to be half built & then run out of money! LOL This is what happens when you rely on others to fund YOUR financial projects. The new library should have NEVER been until that money was safe & secured completely! What a mess!!! Holy likes to pull money our of thin air to fund her hopefulness.
Laurel says
Dumb ’em down, Trump, dumb ’em down. Who needs a Congress, or a Constitution, when we have “I alone can fix it.”
Library Supporter says
My Opinion – To suggest that Holly is unqualified is laughable. She has two masters degrees and over 40 years of experience. Between grants she has written and been awarded and the passport revenue her team has generated under her direction, she has brought over 5 million dollars to the table to fund this “legacy” project. How many other community leaders are doing the same? Like her or don’t, whatever, but stating that she is unqualified is ludicrous.
Punch a nazi says
Old Nazis did the same stuff. An informed electorate is critical for a democracy so the Nazis want to end education target the media that doesn’t align with their Nazi ways or puts a positive spin on their atrocities. Look at what they want to do to 60 minutes for running a story about Ukraine and Greenland that didn’t make orange moron look good.. treason has a cost.
Burn it says
Straight up evil ! And the religious people made it happen! Voted for hate! I watched GOT so I wanna see heads on sticks for this cult.
If you’re in the military are you willing to die for a fascist cause? Do you support the most ignorant leader ever? I think the constitution has already been made irrelevant for these crooks. So you fight to hate on whomever the racist hates this week? Takes true leadership to declare a fake national emergency to go avoid congress then go play a round of golf. We need someone twice as extreme on the other side to run! Pardon anyone who commits crimes against the Nazi Republican Party!
Laurel says
Now Trump wants to deport U.S. citizens out of their country to El Salvador’s prison without due process. Just anyone he wants out, right? He is a 34 x felon, how about deporting him? But, he claims he wants to deport the most violent criminals. Was his adjudicated rape of a woman not violent? Just boys will be boys? He uses the example of gang members hitting old ladies, from behind, with a baseball bat. Let me tell you how stupid that is if you don’t know. A grown man needed do that to rob an old lady! He makes up this shit, and you magas don’t care, and you say you’re not a cult. Where does it stop? With you? You really think so?
Are y’all crazy?
Joe Scarborough and Mika Brezezinski went to Mar A Lago, as if to be some sort of bridge between Trump and their Democratic show audience. Oh, baloney. Bill Maher went to the White House for a similar reason, and reported back what a nice guy Trump really is. I’m not against talking to the “other side” but this is bullshit. Ole Bill seems to forget this sort of nice guy stuff.
TV celebs and politicians will clearly sell their souls for pittances and fame. Magas do not care about their fellow citizens, neighbors, family and friends, as long as they can feel *right.* They clearly don’t care this guy lies like a rug. They don’t care that his spokeswoman spits venom with a doorknocker cross around her neck. None of this matters to them.
Better hope your family and friends will be safe, but don’t bet on it…even if they are white.
I cannot believe there are people here, in this comment section, writing about de-funding libraries. What, you got bad grades in school and this is your retribution? Amazing!
Use the internet says
Libraries are like dinosaurs. Let them go extinct ! Uncle Joe Biden had cables installed thru out the country (at taxpayer expense) to provide internet access for all,
No need for more taxpayer dollars to fund libraries
James says
I come into this place every day and I am constantly floored by programs and they host every week. Yoga, writing group, trivia. I’ve never seen a library host musket shooting or glass blowing before, and can’t wait for what they have next
Kennan says
Thank you Laurel!
Sherry says
For all phone addicted idiots. . .
* First of all, put down your phone and join the real world once in a while. Your phone will NEVER replace an up close and personal experiences. Most libraries provide much more than just a collection of books.
* Second. . . Please understand that the wealth of information available to you on your phone does NOT “originate” from the “PHONE GOD”. It originates from educated, thinking human beings use their education and brains to pass on that information to other human beings. The internet and your phone are just communication devices, they do NOT “create” anything. Even AI, which “learns” does so through “extrapolation” of data that originated with human beings. Libraries are a vital source of education for the “originators of knowledge”, and they are called “human beings”!
Tired of it says
I am willing to bet the naysayers haven’t been inside the library in a long time. Some facts. The funding for the new library was secured and locked down before construction started. But in the typical Republican way of not honoring commitments, they may try to get the money back. After all tax dollars are needed to fund musks’s billion dollar contract and trump’s weekly golf trips. As for the Internet replacing libraries…you obviously haven’t seen the number of people who come to the library programs. The elderly that come for a safe place to sit , talk to people, read the newspaper. The little kids that come to the many learning activities, the adults who come to use the computers . As a library volunteer I shelf hundreds of books every week, yes hundreds because people still want to hold an actual book. Our library acts as a community hub for many, many of our citizens. Beats sitting in front of a computer, in a room by yourself.
Laurel says
Tired of it: Thanks for volunteering at a library!
I have my library card, as does my husband, which will need renewing soon. I also use Hoopla ( https://www.hoopladigital.com/ ) , accessed through our local library right to my TV at home. Hoopla can easily be used by disabled people. It is my understanding that libraries support Braille literature, and provide services for the visually impaired. The library is so much more than books, which we love, and it’s all for good, and it’s all for us to enjoy.
I think if the naysayers here would volunteer, they would begin to better understand what it does do for our communities, and they would also see what librarians actually do. They might even find a book that they could enjoy!
It does seem that our current government is trying to destroy, dismantle and diminish anything that educates us, enlarges our world and brings us joy. Well, misery loves company.