News

This year, we cast both a look back to see what can be learned from the past, and a look forward to consider what might be heading our way in the coming years.

In the evolving world of libraries, creating programs that support your community and secure essential funding is both an art and a science. Before her retirement in late 2024, after 30 years of service, Karen Beach, deputy director of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation, NC, and an expert grant writer, shared invaluable insights with members of the Library Support Network on how development professionals can serve as thought partners to library staff. Her guidance emphasized creating more compelling and competitive grant applications to improve funding success rates.

Libraries remained mostly strong at the ballot in 2024, but a decline in construction initiatives and tightening budgets speak to the need for increasingly strategic advocacy.

This year's Budgets and Funding Survey showed mixed results for fiscal trends in 2024, from robust forward motion to defunding—with more uncertainty ahead.

On December 3, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem released the state budget for FY26, which includes devastating news for the State Library in Pierre, the state capital. The institution will have its budget cut by 12.5 FTE in staff, $1,030,267 in general funds, and $1,399,443 in federal fund expenditure authority. The library currently has 21 staff members, but if the measure passes, seven remaining staff members will work in accessibility services for disabled users, leaving two employees to cover everything else.

Philanthropic foundation Carnegie Corporation of New York on December 9 announced a new $5 million pool of grant funding available for public libraries nationwide. The new initiative—Libraries as Pillars of Education and Democracy—“will help public libraries deliver critical services that promote socioeconomic mobility, civic participation, and social belonging,” according to an announcement. The $5 million will be awarded to 10 to 15 library systems in regions serving 500,000 people or more, with each system receiving up to $500,000 in funding over 24 months.

In the days after the election, LJ spoke with library colleagues for their takes on what may be in store from the new administration—and potential next steps.

Election Day 2024 held mixed results for libraries on the ballot across the country. EveryLibrary identified and tracked 79 library measures on local and statewide ballots about funding, buildings, and governance. Of those, 55 were for long-term operating revenue, 10 for building projects, seven for annual budgets, one was a defunding measure, two concerned library governance, and four were statewide issues. 

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) on July 24 announced the availability of almost $1 billion in competitive grant funding for programs that “support efforts to achieve digital equity, promote digital inclusion activities, and spur greater adoption and meaningful use of broadband,” according to a notice of funding opportunity posted by the agency. Application materials are available on NTIA’s BroadbandUSA website, and must be submitted through the NTIA Grants Portal by September 23.