McHenry protesters oppose deep cuts to federal library agency Trump calls ‘unnecessary’

Nearly 100 people lined up outside the McHenry Public Library Friday afternoon to protest far-reaching cuts to the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, which opponents say could affect local library programs.

[ Photos: See more pictures from the Save Our Library protest in McHenry ]

The group Indivisible McHenry County organized the rally to protest President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the federal government agency while showing support for all libraries, Sue Rose of Indivisible McHenry County said.

On June 6, a federal judge gave the Trump administration permission to proceed with dismantling the Institute of Museum and Library Services, according to published reports.

An executive order Trump issued in March, as part of his wide-ranging efforts to reduce government bureaucracy, identified the institute as one of the federal entities he’d deemed “unnecessary,” along with the the US Interagency Council on Homelessness, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution and the Minority Business Development Agency.

The order said any “non-statutory components and functions” of the agencies “shall be eliminated to the maximum extent” allowed by law. The entire institute staff was placed on leave that month, according to published reports.

A coalition of 21 attorneys general, including Illinois’ Kwame Raoul, filed a lawsuit in April to stop the dismantling of IMLS along with the Minority Business Development Agency and another agency on the list, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, according to an Office of the Illinois Attorney General news release.

“The devastating cuts to the IMLS’s grants and services will make it impossible for the agency to operate as required by Congress,” Rose said a written statement.

IMLS funding in Illinois totaled to $5.7 million last year – the sixth-highest amount in the country, according to an Illinois Library Association news release. The funding supports resources, grants, public library programming, professional development and operations for libraries, with a focus on underserved areas.

The money is also allocated to the Illinois Heartland Library System and the Reaching Across Illinois Library System, or RAILS, under the System Area & Per Capita Grant Program, according to the ILA. RAILS is an agency that assists over 4,000 libraries across the state by providing interlibrary delivery services, including those in McHenry County, Rose said.

“Although libraries in McHenry County do not rely on the IMLS for most of their funding, the elimination of the IMLS could still result in cuts to library services that are enjoyed by our residents and tens of thousands of other people in Illinois,” Rose said in the statement.

According to the most recent IMLS data from 2022, the only McHenry County library to receive federal funding was the Johnsburg Public Library, with nearly $25,000.

Protesters gathered Friday afternoon outside the library, located at 809 Front St., with signs reading “Hands off our libraries,” “Authors not authoritarians” and “Libraries are not government waste.”

McHenry resident Dorothea King said she uses the McHenry Public Library “every day” for both her and her grandchild. She is worried that funding cuts could impact the electronic catalogs and interlibrary services.

“I think libraries are very important part of our community,” she said. “They are not elitist places. They are warm and welcoming, where families can go.”

Crystal Lake resident Jackie Smith said she wouldn’t have become an Air Force and commercial pilot if it weren’t for libraries expanding her horizons of career opportunities for women.

“You don’t know what you can do unless you read it,” she said. “This cause is very near and dear to my heart.”

The ILA asks people to urge federal lawmakers on appropriations committees to support libraries before July 21, when the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee is due to submit unding proposals for the 2026 fiscal year.

Friday’s library rally came less than a week after Indivisible McHenry County helped organize one of the largest protests held in McHenry County in recent memory, during the No Kings rally June 14 along Route 31 in McHenry. The protest drew thousands of people opposing federal government policies.

Despite the recent show of anti-Trump sentiment in McHenry County, the county’s electorate remained predominantly red in November, when the president bested his performance from four years prior, and Republicans expanded their county board majority.

The local nonpartisan organization is planning to host another rally, again in conjunction with a series of nationwide protests, on July 17 dubbed “Good Trouble Lives On” in honor of American civil rights activist and politician John Lewis, who died on July 17, 2020. The location is still being determined, Rose said.