The courts are saving the Institute of Museum and Library Services – at least for the time being. But the threat isn’t gone yet.
A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump Administration’s funding cuts to dismantle the IMLS, Reuters reported. Then on Tuesday a Rhode Island judge issued a preliminary injunction.
Rhode Island District Court Judge John J. McConnell Jr. ordered a halt to the Trump Administration’s efforts to tear down the IMLS via executive order, issuing a preliminary injunction on a “stating that it violated the Administrative Procedure Act.”
In Pennsylvania and Bucks County, funding cut impacts could most keenly be felt by Power Library, Pennsylvania’s e-library resource database, available to libraries, library patrons and public school districts. Bucks County Library’s Power Library e-library is available to patrons with a valid library card and PIN number. It offers access to Consumer Reports, Heritage Quest (an ancestry and local history resource) LinkedIn learning and many additional news, entertainment and research resources.
McConnell’s four page recap decision, dated May 13, 2025, itemizes the judicial order and provides seven days for the defendants to respond.
According to Cornell Law School’s website, a preliminary injunction is made “to preserve the status quo” until a final judgment is made.
McConnell wrote the executive order issued in March by Trump “disregards the fundamental constitutional role of each of the branches of our federal government; specifically, it ignores the unshakable principles that Congress makes the law and appropriates funds, and the Executive implements the law Congress enacted and spends the funds Congress appropriated,” NRP reported.
A separate lawsuit against The Trump Administration was filed by the American Library Association and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the largest union representing museum and library workers to stop “dismantling of IMLS,” the NRP report said.
While a temporary reprieve stops Trump’s efforts to take apart the agency that funds and promotes libraries across the country Maryam Phillips, executive director of Philadelphia-based Hosting Solutions & Library Consulting (HSLC) said “…funding is still under threat of discontinuance.”
HSLC is a non-profit library technology support organization.
The lawsuit was brought by 21 states. Publishers Weekly.com reported New York, Rhode Island and Hawaii as the lead plaintiffs; joined by “states attorneys general from: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.”
“Our stance is unchanged…,” Phillips said in an email Wednesday, “we expect this decision will be appealed, which would continue to leave us in limbo funding-wise. It is also unclear to me what happens to Pennsylvania, since PA was not a signatory on the filing,” Phillips asked.
Phillips said Power Library, a database with subscriptions that serve millions remain a critical issue for Pennsylvania’s libraries –“…especially those that cannot afford database purchases on their own.”
READ: Tribal Communities Risk Losing Local Libraries and the History They Hold Amid DOGE Cuts
“The latest update for HSLC is that current year funding for grants to states is flowing, albeit slowly, and that 50% of the next year’s funding will be disbursed,” Phillips said in an email.
In 2024, IMLS awarded and distributed $266.7 million through grant making, research and policy development to advance, support and empower American’s museums, libraries and related organizations, the IMLS website said.
Power Library e-library is a research, educational and informational lifeline to thousands in Bucks County.
It supports individual patrons with a valid library card and PIN number, as well as public school districts that rely on the online services it provides for students and faculty.
Phillips said funding for “Power Library database subscriptions is a critical issue for Pennsylvania libraries” and the system is currently operating under a worst case funding scenario.
“At this time, there is no certainty as to how to adjust to a 50% reduction in database subscriptions for POWER Library effective July 1, 2025. We are currently consulting with vendors on pricing, preparing several budget scenarios for the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and surveying librarians and library users for Power Library services they absolutely cannot do without,” she explained.
Shortly after the March 14 Trump Administration executive order to drastically cut the IMLS budget, about 70 employees who worked at the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) were placed on paid administrative leave.
Adam Gilbert-Cole, a district consultant for Bucks County Free Library system had “no comment” when asked about the temporary order blocking Trump’s funding cuts.
The American Library Association and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the union representing the museum and library employees, announced it would sue the Trump Administration over funding cuts, which the Pennsylvania Library Association supports, said Christi Buker in a previous interview. Buker is executive director of the Pennsylvania Library Association in Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County.
