The Trump administration’s war on access to knowledge will result in the end of public library access in Massachusetts to a number of academic databases and The Boston Globe. The cuts take effect on July 1.
The dispiriting news is reported in a memo issued May 20 by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners that is weirdly titled “MBLC Maintains some Databases, Support for eBooks, and ComCat.” I don’t mean to be critical of the commissioners, since Trump’s perversity is not their fault. But the news here is what’s being cut, not what’s being saved.
The cuts are the result of an executive order issued by Trump on March 14 titled “Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy.” The order eliminates a number of agencies and programs, including the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which in the current fiscal year provided $3.6 million for library services in Massachusetts as well as grants to local libraries. The MBLC spent about $2.2 million of its federal allocation on access to various online databases. MBLC director Maureen Amyot said in a statement:
The federal impact cannot be overstated. In Massachusetts, over 1,600 school, public, academic and special libraries from across the state benefit from federal IMLS funding. Millions of people rely on federally funded library services. Developing a plan for services in an environment of almost daily federal change has been challenging, but our goal has remained constant: to maintain services that are integral to the functioning of our system and heavily relied on by the people of the Commonwealth.
The MBLC was able to preserve access to some databases. The decisions about what to cut and what to keep were based on usage, according to the MBLC. In addition, the statewide program that funds access to e-books and audiobooks will continue, as well the Commonwealth Catalog, or ComCat, which provides access to items that a local library may not have.
Needless to say, there is no reason for any of this. Trump inherited a strong economy that continues to perform reasonably well despite his efforts to take a wrecking ball to it. These cuts call to mind his infamous outburst in 2016: “I love the poorly educated.” It appears that he wants to keep them that way.
What’s being cut
- Boston Globe Article Archive
- Britannica Moderna
- Gale Academic OneFile Select
- Gale General OneFile
- Gale Health and Wellness
- Gale in Context: Biography
- Gale in Context: Elementary
- Gale in Context:Environmental Studies
- Gale in Context: Global Issues
- Gale in Context: Middle School
- Gale in Context: Science
- Gale in Context: US History
- Gale in Context: World History
- Gale Interactive: Science
- GaleLegalForms
- HeritageQuest Online
- Peterson’s Career Prep
- Peterson’s Test Prep
- Science Database (ProQuest)
- Transparency Language Online
What’s being saved
- Britannica Escholar
- Britannica Library
- Britannica School
- Gale Academic OneFile + OneFile Collections
- Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints
- PebbleGo