Director’s Thoughts – 5/15/2024

Today I’m going to share about a little known government agency that has a huge impact on public libraries across the country. The government agency is called the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and its mission is to “advance, support, and empower America’s museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development.”

This is an agency that I don’t think most people really know anything about, but while in graduate school for my library science degree, I had the opportunity to intern at the IMLS for an entire semester and it was such a great opportunity to see public libraries in a completely different way. I spent the majority of my time with the IMLS working on a summer reading research project which really helped me in my first job as a children’s librarian.

Funding

The IMLS awarded $257.2 million in FY2022 to both museums and libraries and that money is essential for helping these organizations provide programming, resources, and services to the public. In Pennsylvania, some of that money is funneled from the IMLS where it is divided among libraries with a population-based formula, while the rest of it is allocated to services like POWER Library which includes online resources that are accessible to every single PA resident.

Research

IMLS doesn’t just give out lots of money, they also, as I mentioned, do a lot of research on museums and libraries. One of their more recent projects was just published in the fall about Motivation, Literacy, and Reading Development which you can access on their website. You’ll also be able to find financial reports and other information as well on the website.

Awards

And finally, they also give out awards for the National Medal for Museum and Library Services for organizations that “provide significant and exceptional contributions to their communities”. It’s great to see what libraries around the country are doing in their communities. And yes, maybe it is specific to a community that I don’t serve, but there are always some great ideas that can translate well between libraries.

It’s probably one the coolest federal government agencies that exist (at least in my opinion) and I’m glad I got to share a little bit about it with you today!