In an Executive Order, the White House announced on March 14 further non-statutory reductions of the Federal bureaucracy. Included in the list of agencies impacted by this action was the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
About 50% of the databases provided state-wide are funded with monies received through an IMLS block grant that is administered by the State Library in Topeka.
On April 11, all of the KBOR Library Deans met with Ray Walling, State Librarian of Kansas, to discuss the potential implications of the current “pause” on some IMLS funding streams. Thus far, the IMLS block grants to states continue to be funded (Ray had even received a payment earlier that day!).
Most of the databases provided through the State Library are supporting K-12 and public library constituencies. At WSU, we have completed a review of those State-wide resources that are relevant to our higher education mission and identified where WSU risks lie should access to particular State-funded databases be cancelled and WSU (or a group of KBOR institutions) would need to replace the funding of those databases for our institutional constituencies. At present, this risk has been determined to be very low.
The administration and faculty of the University Libraries continue to monitor the situation.
