Public Libraries on the Chopping Block, 2025 Edition
A look at the budget cuts affecting US libraries in 2025
Almost exactly a year ago, I highlighted how it was a painful year in the world of funding cuts toward public libraries. In the last 12 months, things haven’t changed much. Funding for libraries continues to be the first place city leaders turn to when they find their pockets being squeezed.
Public libraries have become the social safety net across the country. They serve as cooling and warming centers; as places where folks can seek social services and counseling via social workers; as places that distribute goods, services, and information (like masks during COVID); as places where those who experience homelessness can spend part of their day (within certain parameters in some locales); as places for parents to take their children free of charge for education, entertainment, and enrichment; as places where teenagers can be without expectation of spending money; as places for helping people get their GED and learn how to speak English; and a million other examples. All of these relate the core mission of the public library to serve the whole of their community. Some exploit that mission and the actual expertise library workers have.
Many of these tasks and needs arose because agencies dedicated to serving these missions have been trimmed from government budgets since the Reagan administration. Libraries provide them because libraries take up the mantle. Libraries provide them because vocational awe, the femeninization of the profession, and the realities of being next in line for cuts force them to. But libraries were never really “next” in line. They’ve been first, but as elections have shown time and time again, people tend to vote to fund their libraries when asked on the ballot. Salem Public Library (OR) was saved via levy. White Oak Library District (IL) passed a tax increase, as did Cape Girardeau Public Library (MO), to name but three this year.
None of this touches the fact that libraries are dealing the gutting of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). As of writing, the Trump budget completely shutters the agency as of Fiscal Year 2026, or October 1 of this year. There’s time to advocate for its funding restoration still, including with the House Appropriations Committee and also the Senate, which put the agency’s funding back into their budget markup. As is the case with every federal cut this year, those most impacted are small and rural communities, who already lack the local funding to provide the services their communities need.
So what has 2025 brought in the world of library funding cuts? Here’s a non-exhaustive list of stories:
Whitman County (WA) will have brief closures next week to sort some things out and will permanently alter the hours at one of their branch libraries.
Fort Vancouver Libraries (WA) will need to make cuts to 30% of staff, hours, locations, and programming if their levy doesn’t pass. If you’re local there or know someone local, the vote is August 5.
Recycled Reads, the Austin Public Library (TX) used bookstore, will close by next spring if the proposed city budget is approved. Recycled Reads raises funds for the library system, so this cut will have significant impact.
Grant County, Oregon, has a $1.5 million shortfall in their budget and one of the proposals was shutting the library. Why? Because legally they don’t need to have one, so that’s a quick fix. You’ll be shocked to learn the community isn’t keen on that solution.
Richmond Public Schools (VA) cut their book budget in half. Their solution is begging for private money which, again, isn’t sustainable.
Carbon County Library System (WY) is having their budget slashed in half. The salaries of all employees are being reduced, operating hours of the libraries are being reduced, and they’re begging for donations. This is a really important story, as the budget issues arose from statewide property tax relief. Folks got their property taxes cut at the expense of their public goods and services. Almost as if there’s been a real line between the two of them for forever.
Due to looming budget cuts, Siouxland Public Libraries (SD) will be shortening their hours by two hours per day at two of their libraries. “Why are you never open when I need you” will be the chant, folks.
I’m going to simply quote the article here: “The Monroe County Public Library may reduce hours at its downtown location as tax cuts passed by the Republican-led Indiana legislature in April threaten more than $300,000 in MCPL funding next year." They're going to reduce staff by 5 FTE as a result.
Pleasanton Public Library (CA) will no longer have Sunday hours and will reduce overall hours during the week from 62 to 48.
Fargo Public Library (ND) may need to shut down an entire branch of the library and cut other services elsewhere due to city budget challenges.
In New Bedford, Massachusetts, Casa da Saudade, the city’s Portuguese-language library branch, was at threat of being closed due to city budget woes. The “good” news here is that people pushed back and that branch will not be shut down. It’s interesting that this branch was the one singled out.
Petersburg Public Library (AK) now has to close at 4 pm instead of 8 pm on Mondays due to budget cuts.
Independence Public Library in Oregon will shut down one day a week starting this fall, limiting service to 4 days rather than 5, thanks to budget cuts.
Chestatee Regional Library (GA) is cutting full-time library staff–wait for it–due to healthcare costs. This story is paywalled and I can’t seem to find another source. A lot of issues to untangle here, including that healthcare is tied to full-time work and that library worker salaries are such that affording healthcare outside of employer-provided coverage is impossible. I’m curious if other departments in the area are having such discussions or if it’s only the library who is victim.
New Hanover County (NH) libraries will be recipients of budget cuts this year, which will include targeting jobs in the library.
Fremont County Libraries (WY) will see a reduction of 64 staff hours per week due to budget cuts. This is leaving two unfilled positions as-is and laying off another.
The Flagler County Public Library in Palm Coast (FL) will see a 23% cut in hours and more cuts in staffing. It’ll go from being open 52 hours a week to just 40 and it will be closed on Mondays.
If this list made you tired, perhaps it’s worth noting that this represents only budget cut news from July 2025. Yes, only one month of stories. There are dozens more from the start of the year alone and they all read the same. Library hours being dramatically cut. Library workers being cut. Services being dropped.
What do these proposed and actual cuts look like? Kalona Public Library (IA) is a great example. They can’t buy the number of items they once did, not only because the materials budget was slashed, but also because they don’t have the staff to do it. They’re now desperately dependent on the good nature of people to donate money to keep them afloat. This not only defies the meaning of public goods and services; it also makes budgeting for the future a nightmare. You can’t!
The public votes pro-library more often than not.* That begs the question of why it is the insignificant budgets of the library are first to be cut when a city faces a shortfall and not, say, the skyrocketing budgets of the police?^ It continues to weaken one of the strongest democratic institutions in the US and further creates opportunity for the dismantling and destruction so eagerly sought by parties ready to step in and revoke access to whoever they’d like to deny. It sends the clear message that law, order, and obedience are bigger priorities than educational and recreational well-being. Than verifiable facts and information.
When you cut the safety net, what happens?**
The more they cut, the fewer services that can be offered by already stretched-thin staff and time, and the more opportunity to then turn around and say that the library is worth getting rid of all together because it’s not doing everything it once did (convenient).
The few systems funded by the people for the people continue to be winnowed. The cost of losing public libraries (and public education, too) is democracy more broadly. The cost of losing public libraries is civic engagement.
Notes:
There’s a whole other element to this, too, and that’s the impact tariffs will bring to libraries. It’s not just the potential increases on book costs. It’s also any building needs that arise, including HVAC systems and parts.
*Just like they do not believe in banning books, as shown in survey after survey. As mentioned last year, we can’t attribute every funding challenge public libraries are facing this year to book bans, but it certainly is among the reasons why this is happening. Remember that the clarion song of the banners has been that there’s not book banning happening because people can just buy the books somewhere else. The banners are just “curating” “appropriate” collections to ensure their viewpoint and perspective is all that’s permitted within these civic institutions.
^In Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, they cut $300,000 from the library budget this year to give to the police. Nearly every single year, the New York Public Library has to fight for their budget while New York Police Department has a baffling 86 member public relations department.
**Modern day debtors’ prisons is the answer (note that this link no longer works, but that’s okay–the administration issued an Executive Order in July to make it even clearer). Those cost more than the safety nets but the prison industrial complex rolls on, raking in billions of dollars and lining the pockets of thousands of companies annually. The American prison system is also home to the most flagrant violations of First Amendment rights and censorship of those within it. Given how this administration has made imprisonment the thing they’re giving all of our tax money to, well, it’s going to keep getting worse before it gets better.