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The Guardian
07-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Being a librarian was already hard. Then came the Trump administration
For many librarians, the stakes of the job are high – they're facing burnout, book bans, legislation pushed by rightwing groups, and providing essential resources in an effort to fill gaps in the US's social safety net. Now, as Donald Trump's administration rolls out their agenda, many librarians are describing his policies as 'catastrophic' to accessing information and the libraries themselves – institutions considered fundamental to democracy. Rebecca Hass, the programming and outreach manager at the Anne Arundel county public library in Maryland, has seen the effects of Trump's second term ripple in. 'The impact [is] on many different community partners and customers that are represented in some of the executive orders,' said Hass. 'We get everyone at the library. When people lose their jobs, they come to the library. When they're not sure what's going on, they come to the library.' Hass said the library received some pushback about LGBTQ+ programming, including protesters showing up to its trans Pride event. But the library is undeterred in efforts to meet community needs and supply resources, creating new resource pages on immigration and LGBTQ+ communities, and updating others. They have expanded partnerships, including with social workers in the library. Usage of the community pantry has increased. Much of this is work the library has always done, Hass said, adding: 'But now it's taken on urgency and additional responsibilities.' Emily Drabinski, an associate professor at the Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at the City University of New York, said that what is happening to librarians now mirrors what is happening to other workers. 'You don't get paid enough to meet your basic needs. Your autonomy at work is consistently under threat. People who think that they know better how to do your job are trying to get the power to push you out of your position,' she said. Some librarians described the impact of institutions capitulating to censorship on their work. A librarian in the deep south, who asked to remain anonymous in order to protect their safety, described tensions rising on their library board, and how the library is taking pre-emptive measures to make it challenging to find titles considered 'controversial'. 'I see all that being as a measure of: 'If we fly under the radar, we'll be safe,'' they said. 'But it's sad because who gets left behind – for staff members of color, [or] who are visibly queer, who are disabled, we don't get to turn off that part of ourselves.' Meanwhile, Imani, an academic librarian in Texas who declined to give their full name for privacy concerns, is an active public library user, said 'DEI removal' happened in her workplace in 2023. Now, they're seeing increased scrutiny on how funds are spent, especially in regard to large databases. 'It's really important that people know that this isn't new at all,' she said, adding that she knew a school librarian who retired several years ago due to fears of criminalization. 'At this point, many librarians have done every single thing they can to save things.' Also, Imani noted, librarians are doing their work with 'very little money, very little support [and] higher, higher demand'. Elon Musk's unofficial 'department of government efficiency' recently gutted the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which the American Library Association noted greatly affects the important services they offer, including high-speed internet access, summer reading programs, veterans' telehealth spaces and more, with the most intense losses in rural communities. While the majority of public library funding comes from city and county taxes, according to EveryLibrary, the IMLS provides grants that support these critical services in every state. Marisa Kabas, the independent journalist who writes the The Handbasket, obtained a copy of a letter sent by IMLS's acting director, Keith Sonderling, announcing that state library grantee funding would be terminated immediately. (Sonderling previously declared his intention to 'restore focus on patriotism' to the IMLS, which many groups noted as an attack on freedom of expression.) The IMLS submitted a budget request of $280m for 2025. 'That's nothing in terms of the federal budget, yet it's going to affect every single library in the country,' said Jessamyn West, who works in a rural, public library in Vermont in addition to working with the Flickr Foundation. 'It's going to make them scramble, it's going to make them worry, and it's going to make them have to make really difficult choices for the services that they give to their patrons.' In many cases, the money is already spent because of contracts libraries had with governments, West added. 'We're all pretty furious,' West said. Librarians are speaking out about what communities could lose, including internet access and workforce development in Kentucky, the Talking Book and Braille Center in New Jersey, digital hotspots in North Carolina, and much more outlined in reporting from Book Riot. As librarians grappled with losses that would directly affect their work, the IMLS Instagram account issued posts appearing to mock grantees. 'It's catastrophic,' Drabinski said, adding that IMLS funds significant library infrastructure, including ebook platforms and interlibrary loan systems. 'Without those funds, many of those systems will grind to a halt. All of our work is about to become harder at the same time that the need for our resources and services will explode.' Drabinski continued: 'What we want is for people to be able to read, and for people to have enough. The problems that we face as American workers are similar to yours, and we share a fight.'
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
California's San Mateo County celebrates trans people, fights bullying
At a time of attacks on transgender people and immigrants, San Mateo County in Northern California is standing up for them. Keep up with the latest in + news and politics. The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors Tuesday OK'd a resolution confirming the county's commitment to fight bullying of young people, Local News Matters reports. The county is located just south of San Francisco. '[Donald] Trump's bullying tactics have swept across our schools, causing immigrant children to fear being deported and LGBTQ+ children to fear having their long-fought for rights to be trampled upon,' Board President David Canepa, the resolution's sponsor, said in a statement released Monday night, according to the site. The resolution 'directs each county department and employee to engage in efforts that prevent bullying, provide education and intervene if bullying occurs,' the site notes. The board also voted Tuesday to recognize March 31, next Monday, as Transgender Day of Visibility. It raised the trans Pride flag Wednesday on the county flagpole in anticipation of the day. 'For everyone that is a part of this community, we see you, we are here with you, and we are committed to celebrating your beauty, your love, our pride, and your joy,' Supervisor Noelia Corzo, the new liaison to the county's LGBTQIA+ Commission, said at the ceremony, according to local paper The Daily Journal. 'San Mateo County does lead the way, but that doesn't mean that we don't have more work to do,' Corzo added. 'I want to thank the commission for their ongoing work in pushing us to be more welcoming, be more affirming, provide a safer community for every LGBTQIA+ community member in our county.' People attending the ceremony waved their own small trans Pride flags. Ishani Dugar, lead trainer and peer group coordinator at the San Mateo County Pride Center, spoke at the event on the importance of visibility. 'Wear flags or raise them if you have them, share your pronouns with folks, correct assumptions about identity that people will hold, push back on folks who assume that others in their space will be comfortable with transphobic language or with assuming that trans people are not present,' Dugar said. The Pride Center will hold an online Trans 101 Workshop from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday. On Friday, it will host a mixer for families of trans kids from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hundreds rally in Salem, Portland against Trump, Musk moves on funding, against agencies
Protesters gathered outside the Oregon capitol on Wednesday, Feb. 5. (Photo by Julia Shumway/Oregon Capital Chronicle) Hundreds of people crowded the streets of downtown Salem and northeast Portland on Wednesday in separate protests against President Donald Trump, unelected adviser Elon Musk and their actions and policies that have led to chaos in Oregon and throughout the country. Outside the capitol in Salem, an array of several hundred people waved signs and flags about rights and identities they fear are under threat from the Trump administration. Pink, blue and white trans Pride flags, rainbow LGBTQ+ flags, signs about reproductive rights and signs about protecting the planet abounded, and many named Trump or Musk. And in Portland, more than 200 people gathered outside the office of Oregon's Democratic U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, who has pledged to fight what he called the 'authoritarian takeover of our federal government by Donald Trump and Elon Musk,' according to spokesman Hank Stern. Wyden also joined a letter to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, demanding that she answer questions about Musk and his team's illegal access to classified government materials and Americans' private data, including Social Security numbers, home addresses and bank accounts. Protestors also want Democrats to block Trump's remaining nominees by denying majority Republicans in the Senate a quorum until Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency are stopped, denied access to confidential data at federal agencies and removed from federal buildings. Oregon's other Democratic U.S. senator, Jeff Merkley, the ranking member of the Senate budget committee, is joining an all-night protest of Democratic leaders on the Senate floor in an attempt to block a vote on Trump's nominee for the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought. 'We're in the middle of an authoritarian administrative coup,' Merkley said on X. 'This is a moment for every American to stand up, speak up, and get involved.' The protests are part of a nationwide movement on Wednesday orchestrated in part by the pro-democracy group Indivisible and others to show opposition to a firehose of controversial executive orders since the inauguration. They include a threat to freeze certain federal funds, abolish the U.S. Agency for International Development, strip federal government websites of words associated with diversity, equity and inclusion and the LGBTQ+ community and a move against scientific research nationwide. Besides Oregon, thousands turned out from the West to East coasts, with large protests in Washington state, Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina and elsewhere. And on the streets, protestors waved signs and chanted against Senate approval of Vought to lead the budget office. He has made clear he thinks Trump has the authority to block congressionally approved funding the administration doesn't agree with. Vought is a lead author of the controversial conservative framework Project 2025, meant to reshape the federal government, giving full powers to the executive branch. Many seniors were among the crowd that showed up at Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden's office in northeast Portland on Wednesday, July 5, 2025 to protest recent actions by the Trump administration. (Photo by Alex Baumhardt/Oregon Capital Chronicle) Several hundred people showed up at Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden's office in northeast Portland on Wednesday, July 5, 2025 to protest recent actions by the Trump administration. (Photo by Alex Baumhardt/Oregon Capital Chronicle) Several hundred people showed up at Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden's office in northeast Portland on Wednesday, July 5, 2025 to protest recent actions by the Trump administration. (Photo by Alex Baumhardt/Oregon Capital Chronicle) Several hundred people showed up at Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden's office in northeast Portland on Wednesday, July 5, 2025 to protest recent actions by the Trump administration. (Photo by Alex Baumhardt/Oregon Capital Chronicle) Some protesters in Salem, who gathered outside the Capitol, traveled from around the state and drove through snow or ice to join the rally. Many said they were there to show Trump and Oregon politicians that the people of Oregon were paying attention and aren't happy. Dago Benavidez, a Salem-based artist, held a sign saying 'not my czar' — a message he said applied to both Trump and Musk. Benavidez used to work for the state employment department, where he used federal funds provided under the North American Free Trade Agreement to help people who lost their jobs as a result of production shifting to Canada or Mexico learn new skills and find new jobs. He was worried by the federal funding freeze Trump announced, then withdrew after it was blocked by courts last week. 'I'm hoping even Trump supporters wake up and see the damage this guy is doing to us,' Benavidez said. Kendra Petersen-Morgan drove from Portland to Salem and carried a sign that said 'I'm going to speak out while I still can.' Petersen-Morgan said she felt like she needed to come for her two daughters and for friends who were afraid to attend a protest or speak out publicly. Spending the morning with likeminded people also helped lift her spirits as she has felt overwhelmed by an onslaught of news from D.C. 'People are fed up and aren't just going to sit and stand by,' she said. Protesters gathered outside the Oregon capitol on Wednesday, Feb. 5. (Photo by Julia Shumway/Oregon Capital Chronicle) Protesters march down Court Street across from the Oregon Capitol on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. (Photo by Julia Shumway/Oregon Capital Chronicle) Portlander Kendra Petersen-Morgan came to Salem to participate in a protest on Wednesday, Feb. 5. (Photo by Julia Shumway/Oregon Capital Chronicle) Salem resident Dago Benavidez shows his sign for a protest on Wednesday, Feb. 5. (Photo by Julia Shumway/Oregon Capital Chronicle) Tom Coppolino, who traveled from Corvallis to Salem, used to take his environmental studies students to protests in Eugene. He considered bringing some of their protest signs with him, but he needed to carry his cane instead. Coppolino said he regularly hears that Trump thinks people who oppose him are doing something wrong or are in trouble. The action in Salem and capitals around the country on Wednesday should be a sign to Trump that Americans aren't cowed by Trump, he said. 'Does it look like we're in trouble?' he asked, gesturing to the crowd of people waving signs to a chorus of honks. 'We're going to fight as much as we can. We're not going to stop.' Salem resident Vincent Johnson held an upside-down U.S. flag over his shoulder as a sign that the country is in distress and brandished a sign that said 'Tired of partying like it's 1933,' a reference to the year Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany. Johnson saw clear parallels between modern-day America and the rise of the Nazi government in Germany, and he said he worries that if Americans don't act now that they'll lose their democracy. 'I hope they realize that we're not going to go down without a fight,' Johnson said. Carol Tomlinson traveled from Longview, Washington, to support a friend and protest against a host of Trump policies, including his stances on immigration, LGBTQ+ rights and Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, which has not been sanctioned by Congress. 'It seems like he — Trump as well as Elon — are trying to systematically decimate anything that makes us American,' Tomlinson said. Debbie Duus and Elissa Wilson came to Salem from Newport, driving through snow. Everyone Duus talks to in her coastal community wants to do something, she said, and they feel more energized now than they did before Trump took office, when people were 'just depressed' and could only speculate about what he would do. 'Now we have a reason to protest everything he does,' Duus said. 'Musk is acting out. Trump is acting out.' In Portland, Thor Hinckley was among the crowd in front of Wyden's office calling on the senator and senate Democrats to stop Vought's confirmation to lead the Office of Budget and Management. 'That's absolutely the top concern,' he said. Hinckley is a member of the nonprofit Third Act Oregon, made up of people over 60 who support environmental policies and protecting Democracy. 'They've been very good so far,' he said of Wyden and Merkley's opposition to Vought in previous hearings, 'and we want them to do even more, because the crisis is real and it's time to act now.' For Cheryl McCoy, 75, getting Musk out of positions of power in the federal government is the priority, she said at the Portland rally. 'The very first thing, as far as I'm concerned, is you've got to stop Musk,' McCoy said. 'This is a constitutional crisis. He's unelected. This is an attempt to overthrow everything that matters to us in this country.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
