Georgia library programs in jeopardy as courts weigh Trump funding cuts

Attorneys general for 21 states filed suit to stop the order, and a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction this month, ensuring that library systems will receive federal grant funds at least through September. But public libraries in Georgia are rethinking their budgets while cuts to IMLS are in legal limbo.

In Georgia, federal IMLS grants help fund summer reading programs; GALILEO, a database of online journals; PINES, a service that allows local Georgia libraries to lend books to other jurisdictions across the state; and services for the blind.

In 2024, the Georgia Public Library Service, which administers the IMLS grants, received more than $5 million. Without that money, the costs of those statewide programs would shift onto local library systems, which means some might drop those programs altogether.

“That really hits hard for the most underserved portions of our state,” said Alan Harkness, director of Chattahoochee Valley Libraries, a system located in and around Columbus.

He said those cuts would disproportionately affect poor and rural library systems because they don’t generate as much tax revenue at a local level and rely on federal grants to a greater degree than larger, more populous counties.

Harkness is planning his budget as if the library system will not receive any of the federal dollars that it currently relies on.

“We can’t play when it comes to trying to plan for our library budgets,” he said. “And our communities expect us to deliver, so it makes it harder when you don’t know if there are going to be federal dollars going to supplement that.”

In Hall County, Library System Director Lisa MacKinney said the library system is still weighing how to plan out next year’s budget.

MacKinney said she is most concerned about what the cuts would mean for the PINES program, which transfers 3.64 million books and other materials across the state every year, according to the Georgia Public Library Service.

She said it would cost significantly more money for each of Georgia‘s counties to pay for PINES than if they were funded statewide through federal grants.

MacKinney, who has worked in public libraries for more than 30 years, said the loss of federal dollars would likely “cripple” small libraries across the state.

The American Library Association and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees have sued the Trump administration in an effort to stop the cuts. But, even as the legal fights continue, librarians are in the middle of political battles over attempts by conservative activists to remove books from their shelves.

“Whether it‘s what politically people think you should or shouldn’t have or the federal budgets, it‘s a distraction from us focusing on serving the people who walk in our doors,” Harkness said.

MacKinney said the political climate has fueled a distrust of librarians.

“We live in the communities that we serve, and we aren’t looking to damage those communities,” she said. “All we want to do is make them better and stronger, and it‘s pretty tough to feel like there are people who don’t trust you to do this.”

MacKinney also said she is worried about legislative proposals in Georgia.

During this year’s legislative session, a Republican-backed proposal introduced by state Sen. Max Burns, R-Sylvania, would hold librarians criminally liable for knowingly distributing sexually explicit materials to minors. It passed out of the Senate along party lines but stalled in the House. It could be brought back during next year’s legislative session.

“If you‘re a part-time library clerk who makes $12 an hour, it‘s scary to think that you could be targeted and prosecuted for just doing your job,” MacKinney said.

A cosponsor of the proposal, State Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, said the bill would remove a “bizarre” exemption for librarians in state code.

“This bill just places the same standard on libraries that exists everywhere else in the state of Georgia,” he said.

Democrats raised First Amendment concerns, saying it could have a chilling effect on free speech and that the bill never clearly defined what is considered explicit.

MacKinney said that cuts to federal funding and political debates overlook the service libraries provide to their local communities.

“I don’t know that everybody really knows what we do and what an important part of the community we are,” she said.