OKLAHOMA CITY — As part of a flurry of executive orders and dramatic cost-cutting attempts in March, President Trump has directed the federal government to begin dismantling the longstanding Institute of Museum and Library Services (ILMS). This agency directs grant funding for local libraries and museums nationwide.
Though the effectiveness and authority of such an order is still up for debate, it’s sent a panic through patrons and staff alike as they brace for reductions in library budgets and museum programs that have relied on federal assistance since the establishment of the IMLS in 1996.
In Oklahoma City, that’s meant questions about the future of the wide-reaching Metropolitan Library System and the city’s robust museum community, including the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Science Museum Oklahoma, and even the OKC Bombing Memorial and Museum.
But even as governmental and institutional leaders offer reassurance that library and museum services in OKC are currently safe, owing to a vast network of private donors and locally oriented funding models, concerns are building for rural and tribal services across the state.
And that could still carry consequences for Oklahoma City.
“We don’t know how that would impact the larger philanthropic giving community,” OKCMOA President Michael Anderson told Free Press, saying that while the museum hasn’t received IMLS assistance in years, its erasure could mean stiffer competition for donors. “So there are certainly trickle-down effects that are harder to predict.”
City museums mostly spared
Much of Oklahoma City’s sprawling museum network reported the same cautious optimism and non-reliance on federal funding.
“We are solely funded by donations,” said Abby Wolfe, Director of Communications at the largely endowment-funded Science Museum Oklahoma. “While I can say on a personal level, we are concerned about those institutions who receive federal funds, our institution isn’t one of them.”
Similarly, the Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center – one of the few OKC institutions to have received IMLS funds in recent years – reported no current or expected changes in their funding.
“At this time, we have not received any notification of changes to our grant funding related to the Institute of Museum and Library Services,” said OK Contemporary Communications Director Marie Butterline, adding, however, that leadership is “certainly following developments closely.”
In fact, of the $3.7 million distribution of IMLS funds allotted for the entire state of Oklahoma in 2024, only $1.2 million was granted to museum services, less than half of what was granted to state libraries.
OKC Free Press reached Oklahoma Museums Association Executive Director Brenda Granger, who offered a complete list of Oklahoma museum institutions that have received IMLS funds in the last five years.
Of the twelve listed institutions, only two were in Oklahoma City: the OK Contemporary Arts Center and the OKC National Memorial and Museum on the site of the Oklahoma City Bombing.
Attempts by Free Press to reach leadership at the Memorial for comment were not returned by publication.
Tribal museums at risk
Nine of the remaining Oklahoma institutions that received federal assistance in the last five years were all tribal museums and services.
Museum grants were awarded to tribal institutions at a far higher percentage than any other Oklahoman service in recent years, with funds assisting Choctaw, Miami, Chickasaw, Peoria, Delaware, Otoe-Missouria, Ponca, Eastern Shawnee, and Wyandotte museum efforts across the state.
Oklahoman and Citizen-Potawatomie Kelli Mosteller, the Executive Director of First Americans Museum (an OKC institution not shown to have received any IMLS assistance), serves on the National Museum and Library Services Board within the IMLS.
She joined her board colleagues Monday in issuing a letter to Acting IMLS Director Keith Sonderling.
That letter laid out the board’s insistence that the congressionally mandated work of the IMLS cannot be so quickly dismantled by a single executive order and that both the work and existence of the IMLS at the federal level is protected by clear statute.
“All such statutory obligations may not be discontinued or delayed under an Executive Order or other executive action,” the letter reads. “Congress has codified structural and administrative requirements that establish the lawful foundation for the agency’s continued operation.”
Metro libraries expecting stability
Likewise, Oklahoma Department of Libraries Director Natalie Currie is not expecting any quick action from this executive order.
“The Museum and Library Services Act [that established the IMLS] doesn’t expire until September 30th,” Currie told Free Press. “So as long as that congressional authorization stays in place, I feel very confident that we’re going to continue to see that program continue.”
But even if Congress votes to shutter the IMLS or declines to renew its authorization, Currie explained that there would be virtually no threat to services for Oklahoma County’s Metropolitan Library System, which derives its funding primarily through property taxes in the county.
“It’s a very small percentage of Metro’s budget,” Currie said of federal grants coming from the IMLS. “A system with adequate property tax, such as Metro, is going to likely sustain a level of service similar to what they’re doing now.”
OKC offering help?
The same cannot be said, however, for much smaller, rural libraries across Oklahoma, who were the main recipients of the $2.5 million granted to Oklahoma for library services in 2024.
Unlike the museum services that use IMLS funds largely for individual projects and singular programs, the state’s library recipients of federal funds are mostly rural libraries that depend on the funding in order to exist at all.
“There are the smaller, more rural areas of the state where the city sales tax base isn’t as adequate for funding even basic services,” Currie explained. “So the things that we fund with those grants through IMLS are very basic library services. It’s not extra. It’s not just nice to have. These are the things that you think of when you think of your local public library.”
So if these cuts to the IMLS do go through, would a well-funded and presumably secure library system like Metropolitan or the multi-county Pioneer Library System have any options for helping to sustain the smaller rural libraries that would lose funding?
If IMLS funds are significantly reduced, could the Metro redirect its allotment to rural libraries in the state? If the IMLS is closed entirely, could the Pioneer System expand to cover those rural counties as well?
According to Currie, those hypotheticals could all be on the table, but they would all require new legislation at a city or county level.
“The Oklahoma statute that establishes how libraries function in our state says that adequate library service is the responsibility of government at all levels,” she said. “And that’s really how we think about doing this work.”
Ensuring that library services remain available across the state, then, may come down to local pressure on city and county governments.
“Just make sure that you’re building relationships with your city council, your mayor, and the members of your library board,” Currie suggested. “And whenever your local library asks for you to share a story about how your libraries impacted your life, share that story, because those are the stories that we bring with us when we talk to the stakeholders.”
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
