From the Documenters
This story came in part from notes taken by Claire Locke, a San Diego Documenter, at a city of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture Advocacy & Outreach Committee meeting last month. The Documenters program trains and pays community members to document what happens at public meetings.
Cuts to a federal agency that provides grants to libraries and museums could hit San Diego institutions that have used the money to fund programs serving people with disabilities and environmental science projects.
President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at reducing “the federal bureaucracy” cuts personnel and funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which supports libraries and museums across the United States.
The federal agency contributes hundreds of thousands of dollars to local libraries and museums for community programs and art and science collections.
Local institutions are bracing for impact, which will come alongside cuts stemming from the city of San Diego’s $258 million budget shortfall.
San Diego public libraries received about $400,000 in funding from the IMLS over the past three years. This funding went to support learning programs aimed at children 0-5 years old, climate and sustainability workshops, homeschool curriculum and equipment and STEAM programming, which works to teach science, technology, engineering, arts and math to children.
“This funding also supports bedrock library initiatives like the annual summer reading program, services to the visually impaired and the California State Parks pass program,” said Caleb Olsen, a spokesperson at the San Diego Public Library.
“Losing IMLS funds will create significant limitations to programming in the future by hindering innovation … and diminishing the library’s ability to serve and support the community.”
The San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park has received $875,000 of IMLS funding over the past 10 years. The grants helped fund projects to increase museum accessibility for people with developmental disabilities and create an exhibit that shared the impact of its biodiversity research.
The most recent cuts have impacted the museum’s project to catalog and rehouse marine specimens.
“At The Nat, IMLS supports mission-critical projects like helping care for our research collection and developing exhibits that bring people closer to science and nature in our region,” said Rebecca Handelsman, a museum spokesperson.
“IMLS funding is more than support for individual projects. For us, it’s an investment in science, education, and community. These grants allow us to care for our vast scientific collections.”
According to the Library Foundation SD, the IMLS funding cuts could impact several local programs:
The New Children’s Museum has a Social Emotional Learning Program that is supported by an IMLS grant that was recently terminated. Social Emotional learning principles have been around since the 1900s and have been shown to improve emotional intelligence and reduce behaviors such as violence, bullying and drug abuse, according to a research article in Review of Research in Education.
The program was sent to continue to receive grant funding through the end of August, but officials no longer anticipate receiving the remaining $39,000 in award funds.
Museum leaders also expected to receive another two-year grant that they no longer expect due to the IMLS staffing and funding cuts.
“We are feeling it deeply at the Museum on many levels,” said Amanda Lopez, director of communications and marketing.
IMLS federal funding cuts were closely followed by local budget cuts that have impacted libraries. While Mayor Todd Gloria and the City Council last fall supported Measure E — a proposed 1% sales tax increase that they said would help the city’s financial troubles — voters narrowly rejected the measure.
Now, library operating hours and tutoring programs at eight locations are expected to be impacted under Gloria’s proposed budget.
“Once we realized that we couldn’t count on new revenue from Measure E, Mayor Gloria had the foresight to plan for a budget year that would require us to rethink how we provide services and better recover costs in order to avoid browning out fire stations, shuttering libraries, laying off thousands of employees, and slashing services — which is the reality we were facing,” said Matt Vespi, the city’s chief financial officer, in a news release.
