It’s important to stop and think about the media we consume. Who’s sharing this information? What was their intention? How are you reacting to it?
The Institute of Museum and Library Services, or IMLS, is a federal program that provides funding to, you guessed it, museums and libraries! On April 3, they posted a series of images onto Instagram explaining what taxpayer money is funding at the IMLS. Here’s what they had to say:
$105,000 to address “systemic racism” in museums,
$400,000 to research LGBTQ+ library users’ metadata,
$1,500,000 for social justice programming,
$6,700,000 to enhance equitable library programs,
$4,000,000 for diverse staff development,
$700,000 to research post-pandemic DEI practices,
$140,000 to strengthen librarians’ understanding of LGBTQIA+ health, and
$250,000 to erect LGBTQIA+ historical markers across Ohio.
In total, that’s $13,795,000 worth of taxes that are being used to fund the IMLS. It’s a seemingly strange post. American citizens have the ability to look at what taxpayer money is funding, so this information isn’t groundbreaking. But we don’t see our towns posting on Facebook that they spent however much fixing potholes last year. So we ask, why are we given this information?
Well, doing something as simple as googling “imls” shows us that somethings up. Funding has been pulled, people are losing their jobs, and states are threatening to sue… One thing all of these articles have in common is one thing: the IMLS is being targeted.
But this is the IMLS Instagram page! Why would they brag about funding being pulled? Is it real? Did they get hacked? Who is sharing this information?
Well, it’s complicated because all IMLS employees were put on administrative leave. So, we’re left to assume that it was the acting director, Keith Sonderling, the last remaining “employee.”
But what about the content? What does $6.7 million to enhance equitable library programs mean? What does this do? It’s a lot of money! Is this really where taxpayer dollars are going?
Well, this information is available to us on the IMLS government website. Under their additional resources tab, anyone can pull up the Fiscal Year 2025 Congressional Justification, a 48-page pdf detailing how much funding they’re looking for and how they plan on spending it. It may not be an exciting read, but it’s fairly easy to go through and notice that nothing in that post is representative of what is being said in the most recent Congressional Justification.
So, what about the post is true? Well, the IMLS does provide grants specifically for African Americans, American Latinos, Native Americans, and Native Hawaiians. They also are actively providing equitable services across the country such as learning materials and internet access. They fund research into library user’s metadata, to better fill the needs of their patrons. And like many other professions, they ask their employees to continue their education.
According to their annual public library survey, there are over 9,000 libraries that receive funding from the IMLS. $6.7 million to “enhance equitable library programs” across 9,000 libraries comes out to $744 per library, a seemingly insignificant amount.
It’s important that we check where we get our information from. We need to stop and think about what the intent of the information was, who is sharing it, and whether or not I can be trusted. Through fact-checking a government post, we can see that were being told misinformation—a piece of propaganda against your local library. Although there may be truth behind the original post, it manipulates the reader into believing that one thing means something else.
