Library Director Confirms Trump Cuts Will Eventually Impact Elmwood Park
By Kevin Gosztola
The Elmwood Park Public Library director confirmed that cuts by President Donald Trump’s administration will impact interlibrary loans “somewhere down the road.”
“There’s word of recent cuts, and federal cuts, and how it affects us is the interlibrary loan,” Library Director Michael Consiglio said during a Elmwood Park Public Library Board’s monthly meeting on June 9.
Consiglio indicated that interlibrary loans are funded through September, however, the library has been told not to expect any funding increases.
Elmwood Park’s library is part of the System Wide Automated Network, or SWAN, a cooperative of libraries in the Chicagoland area that enables the sharing of books, and the Reading Across Illinois Library System (RAILS).
Membership in SWAN and RAILS allows for interlibrary loans, meaning a resident may place a hold on a book from another library and that book will then be sent to Elmwood Park to be checked out. Patrons of Chicagoland libraries may also request books from Elmwood Park.
According to Consiglio, library patrons receive around 10,000 books through interlibrary loan during any given year. Around 15,000 books are loaned out each year to libraries in both networks.
On March 14, Trump issued an executive order that singled out funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) as “unnecessary” and called for the agency’s elimination.
“RAILS and the Illinois Heartland Library System, the state’s other major library delivery service that reaches southern and central parts of Illinois, receive about $2.5 million annually for delivery services, about one-third of their budgets, through IMLS funding,” the Chicago Tribune reported on April 28. "Though the state was told to expect this year’s award around April 20, the program officer who oversees Illinois funding has been terminated and the money has not yet arrived, according to a spokesman for Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias.”
Giannoulias previously declared as the state’s librarian, “Make no mistake, stripping these vital resources threatens the sustainability of libraries and amounts to a disinvestment in an educated and informed society.” (He swore in re-elected Village President Angelo “Skip” Saviano and three re-elected village board trustees on May 5.)
Other areas affected by Trump’s cuts include funding for Project Next Generation (PNG). This is an Illinois State Library program that is intended to bridge the digital divide in communities by providing access to computers, software, and technology.
Consiglio said the Elmwood Park Public Library did not receive any PNG funding last year. The library applied for funding this year. Fortunately, if there are no PNG funds awarded, there will still be PNG programs offered for the time being.
Additionally, Consiglio mentioned $7,500 in adult programming that could be affected.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and 20 other state attorneys general sued Trump administration officials on April 4 to stop the dismantling of funding for libraries and museums throughout the United States. That case, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, resulted in a temporary restraining order on May 6 that blocked the cuts.
Chief Judge John J. McConnell found that Trump’s executive order “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.”
Separately, on May 1, Judge Richard Leon issued a temporary restraining order in a case filed by the American Library Association (ALA) that also temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s cuts. But on June 6, Leon ruled that the cuts may proceed.
As Raoul stated, “The Institute of Museum and Library Services helps to ensure that art, culture, history and literacy are accessible for all. Illegally cutting grants jeopardizes critical library programs across the state that make library materials available to smaller communities and provide education and access to technology for underserved youth. Attempting to dismantle agencies created by Congress is a continuation of this administration’s unconstitutional and unlawful overreach.”
“IMLS invested $180 million in libraries nationwide under its Grants to States Program, and Illinois received approximately $5.7 million of that funding” in 2024, Raoul stated. According to Giannoulias, Illinois received the sixth highest amount of any state.
The struggle to protect libraries in the courts, and the impact that the planned cuts have already had, has prompted the ALA to urge U.S. citizens to contact their representatives and senators and demand that they support library funding in the fiscal year 2026 budget.
“There is one final wall of defense against destruction of federal funding for libraries, constituents who tell elected leaders to continue providing libraries the federal resources that bring opportunity to millions of Americans,” ALA President Cindy Hohl said.