Federal Funding Cuts Prolong Anxiety For North Dakota Institutions
By Michael Standaert
North Dakota News Cooperative
Trump administration orders to slash funding across the country have put the future of some programs offered by the State Library of North Dakota at risk.
Other federal funding cuts have already hit research at the University of North Dakota and North Dakota State University in health, science and the humanities.
Pending cuts have programs on edge about their future, potentially impacting citizens whose lives are enriched by those programs.
Staffers at the Institute of Museum and Library Services were put on leave in March following executive orders to reduce the size of the agency. Three states, California, Connecticut and Washington, all had grant funding terminated.
The State Library, which received $1,295,858 from the IMLS in 2024 to help pay for portions of the programs, is currently waiting to see if funding will be disbursed in this fiscal year.
“We haven’t received any official notification that we’re getting those funds, but we haven’t received official notification that we’re not getting those funds either,” said Mary Soucie, State Librarian.
Federal grants provided to the State Library help support services for libraries, students, state employees and citizens across the state.
These include interlibrary loan services, the collection of both physical books and e-books, online library databases, and for the provision of materials to those with physical, visual or reading impairments.
Federal funding has flowed to state libraries since 1956, first through the Department of Education, and since the creation of the IMLS in 1996, through that agency.
Allotments for the State Library increased from around $600,000 in 1999, to the current $1,275,000 expected for both fiscal years 2025 and 2026.
Something that potentially impacts all North Dakotans if funding evaporates is the ability of the State Library to add to e-book collections across the state, as well as providing online databases that allow access to things like continuing education courses, language learning, and genealogy research through Ancestry.com.
The ancestry database is only available by being physically present in the library, Soucie said, and was accessed over 330,000 times last year, so loss of funding could potentially lead to the loss of that popular resource.
Interlibrary loan services could continue in the state if federal funding was cut, Soucie said, but it would impact the ability to serve people across the state. That funding helps cover postage costs to get materials out to people.
“We’re the only state that mails directly to patrons’ homes,” Soucie said.
Nine counties in the state do not have a library, and 23 counties don’t have statewide library services, but anyone in the state can get a State Library card and use it to access materials and databases online or have physical items sent to them directly.