Editorial: Lend a hand to support our libraries

With so much attention focused on the noisier disruptions happening at the federal level — from tariff turmoil to teetering T-bills — it’s easy to overlook some of the quieter policy changes that are having an impact on the services so many rely on in our own backyard, including at our local libraries.

An executive order signed March 14 by President Donald Trump called for the reduction of the Institute of Museum and Library Services — an independent government agency created in 1996, which is the primary source of support for the nation’s museums and libraries. The president’s order deemed the institute an “unnecessary” element of the federal government.

Area library directors are growing concerned.

“Libraries are constantly doing more with less,” Mattituck-Laurel Library director Shauna Scholl said in an early April interview. “But there will come a point when we simply won’t be able to continue doing so, especially if the state and federal programs that support us locally are eroded.”

Across Long Island, roughly $30 million from a federal E-rate program helps ensure access to stable, high-speed internet at schools and libraries. Mattituck-Laurel Library receives roughly $5,000 a year from the E-rate program and, depending on its fate, could have to find the money elsewhere in its budget. 

Beyond the obvious benefits to education, economic development and personal enrichment, there’s also a clear public safety risk if stable communications are jeopardized. “[Schools and libraries] are made of cement and steel … where cellular service doesn’t work as well,” said Suffolk Cooperative Library System director Kevin Verbesey. “Without these internet connections, it’s hard to contact the outside world.”

Beyond providing the traditional services libraries have always offered, today’s librarians are often acting as tech experts, art curators, cultural ambassadors, seed distributors — even passport agents.

Area libraries also maintain growing catalogs of items residents can borrow rather than purchase — many of them things they may only use once or twice. For example, any Southold resident with a library card can borrow a fishing pole, a Mahjong board, a Kindle e-reader, a wireless hotspot device, metal detectors, 3D printing pens, bocce balls, blood pressure monitors, microscopes and many more surprising items — all donated by patrons and all available free of charge.

“In general, government thrives on stability,” Mr. Verbesey said. “And when somebody commits to giving you funding, and you put it into your budget for the next year — the expectation is it will come to you so you can undertake your plans. When all of a sudden … somebody changes their decisions on things that have already been set in stone — or at least set in the law — it just makes it very difficult to function.”

One way to support local libraries is by voting in favor of their annual budgets, which were recently approved in Riverhead and Cutchogue.  Southold Free Library and Floyd Memorial Library will hold their budget votes May 20. 

Area library directors are also urging residents to reach out to their federal representatives and let them know that these vital public services are important to them.

“If you love your library,” Cutchogue-New Suffolk Free Library director Rosemary Winters said, “advocate for what you love.”