REDFIELD On five occasions this year, librarian Sarah Jones-Lutter has left the quiet, comfortable confines of the historic Redfield Carnegie Library andmade her voice heard in the uncertain world of politics.
Jones-Lutter made four trips to the Capitol in Pierre and recently flew to Washington to lobby state and federal lawmakers against proposed funding cuts that could hurt libraries in her hometown and across the state.
One of her trips to the Legislature was to testify against a bill, which ultimately failed, that would have imposed criminal penalties on South Dakota librarians who allowed children to view materials deemed harmful to minors.
Jones-Lutter said she’s puzzled why former Gov. Kristi Noem proposed massive cuts to the state library system, which were softened somewhat by lawmakers, and why President Donald Trump signed an executive order gutting the Institute for Museum and Library Services, or IMLS.
“Maybe they think it’s a waste of funds, maybe they don’t see the importance or they say, ‘People don’t use the library anymore,’” she said. “I just assume they haven’t been to a library in a long time so they don’t know what’s actually going on here.”
Trump said that the order continues the reduction in the elements of the federal bureaucracy that the President has determined are unnecessary.
The State Library Association has advised its members that the status of current grants remains unclear. If the administration follows the same playbook it has in targeting other small agencies for closure, IMLS could be shut down.
The agency provides more than $200 million a year to library systems across the country, including $1.3 million to South Dakota.
Jones-Lutter said the modern library in a small city like Redfield, population 2,200, has morphed from a quiet, solemn place existing mainly to check out books into what she said is more of a “community center.” People of all ages and all walks of life can have a no-cost or low-cost, safe place to spend time and access materials while learning, growing and interacting with other members of their community.
“We talk about the so-called third place, which is important,” she said. “It’s when you have a home and your work or school, but you need a third place to go and experience things. And the library can be that place.”
The South Dakota State Library falls within the purview of the state Department of Education, and both are located in the McKay office building in Pierre.
In an interview with News Watch on April 11, state Education Secretary Joseph Graves said he is monitoring the possible federal cuts to the state library, but he added that “we don’t really know what’s going to happen.”
On April 14, the state library closed its doors to the public, except for pre-arranged appointments, DOE spokeswoman Nancy Van Der Weide told News Watch in an email, citing state cuts, not those proposed by Trump.
While lawmakers held back from enacting all of Noem’s proposed cuts, they did ultimately reduce funding of the state library by about $800,000 and eliminated four staff positions.
Federal archival documents are being transferred to the University of Minnesota, she said. Other materials will be held in the McKay Building, transferred to the state archives or shipped to local, school or university libraries..
Van Der Weide added, “The State Library will continue to provide services such as the summer reading program, Braille and talking book activities, and technical assistance to public libraries and schools.”
Jones-Lutter, 34, has a degree in library science and is the only full-time employee at the Redfield library. The library’s roughly $220,000 annual budget is funded by local taxpayers, but she said that like almost all public libraries, programs and materials in Redfield are supported by a hodgepodge of donations, in-kind services and help from the South Dakota State Library.
Any cuts to the state system will hurt local libraries that rely on state offerings of information services or material sharing systems, she said.
“We’re talking about cuts to summer reading, inter-library loan and the databases used by libraries and schools,” she said. “I mean, you can’t balance the state or federal budget by cutting libraries.”
The Redfield library, located in a historic brick building, has been in operation since 1902 and is one of the few remaining South Dakota libraries first launched by industrialist Andrew Carnegie.
Sharon Eldeen, 81, has been a regular user of the Redfield library since she moved to town in 1968 and calls the library a “stupendous resource.”
“We’d be lost without our local library,” she said.
On a recent weekday, Cynthia Charest, 65, used a computer in the Mitchell Public Library to gain free access to the internet to catch up on the news.
“It’s great for parents with children. And for elderly people, we can become isolated, so this provides a place to be part of a community,” she said.
Kevin Kenkel is the director of the Mitchell Public Library. Circulation of materials and visitor counts have surpassed pre-pandemic levels during the past two years, he said.
Kenkel notes that the library in Mitchell has become more responsive to the needs of the community, and now lends out board games and a telescope.
If IMLF money is cut, dozens of online databases would no longer be available to schools and libraries, he said, and cuts could reduce offerings of inter-library lending services, summer reading program offerings and the ability to bring in speakers to share important information with the community.
“All libraries in South Dakota benefit from the state library receiving federal funds, so we would lose out on access to those databases and other services,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story that was produced by South Dakota News Watch, an independent, nonprofit organization. Read more stories and donate at sdnewswatch.org and sign up for an email to get stories when they’re published. Contact Bart Pfankuch at [email protected].
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