Preserve Funding for the IMLS, NEA, the NEH, and PBS :: Sign the Petition :: everylibrary

Preserve funding for the IMLS, NEA, the NEH, and PBS

Sign the petition to Preserve Funding for the IMLS, NEH, NEA, and PBS

everylibrary: March 2017

At EveryLibrary, we believe that any threatened cuts to funding for libraries and museums, arts, humanities, and cultural programs is a threat to all cultural institutions. President Trump has just released his "America First" budget that eliminates federal funding for all of the institutions that support these programs. These programs account for incredibly insignificant portion of the national budget (less than 0.5%) and while he diverted these funds for the Military, we have to ask; what are we fighting for, if not the arts and humanities? These are the simple human things that make life worth fighting for.

“The arts are essen­tial to any com­plete national life. The State owes it to itself to sus­tain and encour­age them….Ill fares the race which fails to salute the arts with the rev­er­ence and delight which are their due.” - Winston Churchill

IMLS is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 35,000 museums. Cutting this funding means that countless libraries will lose access to the grants that allow them to replace crumbling technology and infrastructure that many rural and urban communities depend on. Libraries often provide the only broadband access to rural communities and many Americans in all areas often rely on libraries to apply to jobs, access training to learn new skills, and many entrepreneurs use the resources found in the library to get a competitive edge in an increasingly global marketplace. In fact, for every dollar spent on libraries, more than $5 are returned to the community.

We also need to stand up and speak out now to our elected officials about the importance of the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Public Broadcasting Service. Yes, only a small portion of their $741 million combined budgets goes to libraries for programs. But those are the pretty significant programs through libraries that improve the cultural, artistic, and social lives of many communities. We are asking you today to help hold the line on IMLS and NEA and NEH and PBS, not just for those library programs, but for the cultural and artistic life of our country

Please use this form to contact your members of Congress today and ask them to preserve IMLS, NEA, NEH, and PBS funding in the next and future budgets. You can make a difference today by sending this message early about cultural programming and our libraries.

Let your elected officials know that these are American budget priorities.

Update: Read the IMLS statement on March 16 about how eliminating this unique library program would impact "library services to every state and territory in the country".

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