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Confused and Easily Amused

@friendlyfirestarter / friendlyfirestarter.tumblr.com

She/her, 20's, just vibing, lots of games lots of shows
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Reblogged highkingpetermagnificent
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🔥 The beacons are lit; the library calls for aid

The Trump administration has issued an executive order aimed at dismantling the Institute of Museum and Library Services - the ONLY federal agency for America's libraries.

Using just 0.003% of the federal budget, the IMLS funds services at libraries across the country; services like Braille and talking books for the visually impaired, high-speed internet access, and early literacy programs.

Libraries are known for doing more with less, but even we can't work with nothing.

How You Can Help:

🔥 Call your congressperson!

Use the app of your choice or look 'em up here: https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member

Pro tip: If your phone anxiety is high, call at night and leave a voicemail. You can even write yourself a script in advance and read it off. Heck, read them this post if you want to.

Phones a total no-go? The American Library Association has a form for you: https://oneclickpolitics.global.ssl.fastly.net/messages/edit?promo_id=23577

🔥Tell your friends!

Tell strangers, for that matter. People in line at the check out, your elderly neighbor, the mail carrier - no one is safe from your library advocacy. Libraries are for everyone and we need all the help we can get.

...Wait, why do we need this IMLS thing again?

The ALA says it best in their official statement and lists some ways libraries across the country use IMLS funding:

ALA statement on White House assault on the Institute of Museum and Library Services
An executive order issued by the Trump administration on Friday night, March 14, calls for the elimination of the Institute of Museum and Li
ala.org

But if you want a really specific answer, here at LCPL we use IMLS funding to provide our amazing interlibrary loan service. If we can't purchase an item you request (out of print books, for example) this service lets us borrow it from another library and check it out to you.

IMLS also funds the statewide Indiana Digital Library and Evergreen Indiana, which gives patrons of smaller Indiana libraries access to collections just as large and varied as the big libraries' collections.

As usual, cutting this funding will hurt rural communities the most - but every library user will feel it one way or another. Let's let Congress know that's unacceptable.

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Apologies for adding to an already long post, but a few people have asked for updates. Here's the latest as of 3/31/25:

All IMLS staff have been placed on leave, which means grants have been suspended. It's not good news, but the call to action is the same: Call your congressperson!

Even if you have already called, you can contact them again since the situation has changed.

More info on what this means, tools for contacting your reps, and further reporting under the cut:

#us politics#politics#libraries
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Reblogged themidnighttiger
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it really is crazy how quickly people were willing to just let chatgpt do everything for them. i have never even tried it. brother i don't even know if it's just a website you go to or what. i do not know where chatgpt actually lives, because i can decide my own grocery list.

#generative ai
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