How federal cuts are shrinking South Dakotans' access to information

Megan Raposa -

Simplified: Planned federal funding cuts to public library services are already impacting Sioux Falls, Siouxland Libraries Director Jodi Fick said Tuesday. And though cuts come from the federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Fick notes in many ways they'll make delivering library services significantly less efficient.

Why it matters

  • DOGE announced cuts to the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) earlier this month, and in the uncertainty around whether those cuts will take effect, the South Dakota Library has shut its doors to the public and discontinued couriers for inter-library loans.
  • The planned federal cuts come just a few weeks after South Dakota state lawmakers agreed to maintain most of the state funding for the library system. But now, the approximately $1.3 million in federal cuts to the state library are expected to have a dramatic impact.
  • In South Dakota, that includes the potential to lose access to a number of online resources like ancestry databases, research hubs, digital early learning resources and more. When delivered at the state level, these services are more cost-efficient, Fick said, and it's unlikely Siouxland Libraries will be able to sustain them on their own.
    • Fick said the library will do what it can to keep inter-library loans, but without state couriers, the costs will go up significantly.
"These are core services that are being delivered very efficiently now," Fick said. "And now, in order to provide them, it's going to cost at least double what it currently does."

Tell me more

The South Dakota Library Association, a statewide organization that advocates for libraries, shared some data about how many resources the state library provides and how many folks are impacted.

  • The state's 58 electronic resources were accessed 1.5 million times,
  • Inter-library loans were used to share more than 111,000 items,
  • State library resources also helped provide information access to more than 2,000 people who are unable to use standard print resources due to visual, physical or learning disabilities.

What does this mean for Sioux Falls libraries?

The immediate impacts will be felt most in inter-library loans (ILL), which will now likely have to be sent via the United States Postal Service with the state cutting its courier program.

  • In Sioux Falls, library users borrow about 9,000 ILL books each year. Fick estimated that could mean about a $20,000 increase in local costs if those books are sent by mail.

The federal funding cuts would also threaten the state's ability to maintain its statewide "Share-It" software, which shares library catalogues for all of the smaller libraries in the state that don't have their own online database.

  • That ultimately means less information is available for South Dakotans, especially those who rely on rural libraries.
"For many of our libraries, if they’re not going to be able to easily see what is at other libraries, they won't even know the books exist to borrow," Fick said. "So there’ll be that restriction – if you wanted a book your library doesn't have, you wouldn't have that."

What happens next?

Fick said if you're somebody who uses your local library, now is a good time to call your congressional representatives and let them know you don't support these cuts.

There have also been a number of statements made by national library groups decrying the funding cuts, including this one from the American Library Association.

In the meantime, Fick said South Dakotans will have less access to information. Though she and her team at Siouxland Libraries will continue to do the best they can with what they have.

"I think (people should) understand that some very efficient ways of delivering services are now being removed," Fick said. "That's actually making things worse for citizens."