Want to know what really makes America great? Libraries.
U.S. libraries are some of the best in the world. But 2025 has been an exasperating year for libraries and other public institutions — since President Donald Trump reclaimed power, it seems the gate has collapsed and open season on public services and their workers has commenced. Libraries are already facing plenty of issues heading into 2026, and yes, you’ll notice lots of overlap — each one of these feeds on and bleeds into the others.
But despite these difficulties, there's hope for a better year ahead — and, ultimately a better future for libraries, librarians, readers, and communities.
Funding
At every level — municipal, state, and federal — there are calls, mostly if not all right-wing, to defund libraries. Often these calls are tied to demands for censorship, hoping to hold library budgets hostage to force library workers to comply in right-wingers' agenda to erase identities they dislike from public life. Other attempts are indirect, like the Trump executive order to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services or the destruction of the Public Library Fund by Ohio's Republican legislature, leaving only one state in the nation left with state-level funding of its kind. Republican-led states are eliminating or redirecting the taxes that go to libraries even as they raise others, a page from a fairly standard playbook: Defund the thing, claim the thing doesn’t work, privatize the thing. Librarians, as ever, are finding themselves increasingly expected to do more with less.
Funding challenges also apply to funding for staff. Like so many other workers in the U.S., library workers are suffering from wage stagnation, and while unionized library workers tend to make more than non-union workers, membership rates are dropping.
Censorship
The book ban epidemic continues, breaking beyond local board rooms and entering state and federal levels. On Dec. 9, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear petitions for Little v. Llano County, allowing a lower court order to stay, gutting the right to intellectual freedom in libraries in three states. The decision effectively proclaims library books as “government speech” and that the First Amendment does not guarantee a right to information, contrary to decades of precedent and completely antithetical to library ethics, which insist that library collections be nonpartisan and represent the plethora of viewpoints within their communities. (Full statements from the American Library Association and the Texas Library Association following the SCOTUS decision provide further context.) This could easily lead to more bans across the U.S., as some other states have similar attempts at censorship in process.
These attempts from organized, right-wing organizations like Moms For Liberty have skyrocketed, making up 72% of all book challenges in school and public libraries in 2024, the vast majority of which have targeted books by and about people of LGBTQ+ and BIPOC identities (particularly comics like Genders Queer and Flamer). Right-wing resources like Take Back the Classroom keep emerging, attempting to weaken trust in librarians and educators under the guise of expertise where there is none.
Access
This one is big and broad, though often not as buzzworthy as other issues. The job of librarians is to organize and disseminate accurate, authoritative information, and their ethic is to provide equitable access to that information (and, of course, entertainment qualifies as information, too). That requires them access to information to begin with, but more and more barriers, in many forms, are being put in their way.
Recently, Baker & Taylor, one of the biggest and historically most reliable sources of books and media for libraries, went under with little warning, leaving libraries scrambling for titles and to create accounts with the only two remaining major library vendors. B&T, “supporting libraries since 1828,” as their website says, shuttered after a failed buyout and two years of trouble. I’ve worked in four different libraries in my career, and all four relied on B&T for procurement. But the past two years have been full of delayed orders or books that never showed up at all, forcing me to purchase them elsewhere at a higher price and getting them into our patrons’ hands late (or never) — a librarian’s worst nightmare.
E-book and digital audiobook demand continues to soar for libraries; unfortunately, so do the prices. Pricing of digital materials is controlled by the publishers who often charge libraries exorbitant rates for e-books, three to five times more than the consumer price. Additionally, digital rights management is added to control how often and when the item is checked out to a patron; the first-sale doctrine does not apply to e-books, since libraries are only purchasing a license, so this means libraries are forced to spend more money on fewer items. This problem seems unlikely to disappear anytime soon, with e-books and digital audiobooks increasing in popularity due to the convenience they offer to patrons.
Speaking of digital materials: In 2024, Penguin Random House acquired Boom Studios then, earlier this year, forced Comics Plus — one of the most affordable digital services for digital comics for libraries— to remove all Boom Studios comics from their offerings. Sales to venture capitalists, buyouts, and mergers of any media- or library-related company can spell doom for library access. This includes the potential Netflix/Warner Bros. Discovery sale and the possibility that even more titles will become streaming exclusives without physical release, preventing libraries from providing access to their users.
Remember earlier when I said it is a librarian’s duty to provide access to "accurate, authoritative information"? Removing accuracy or authority means the spread of misinformation, which is a compounding barrier to information access. Librarians are struggling to combat misinformation, from the highest levels of federal government to popular social networking platforms like TikTok.
Generative AI
While we’re on the topic of misinformation, Generative AI is the bane of many librarians.
In a previous role as a collection development manager, I discovered hundreds of AI-generated e-books full of sometimes harmfully inaccurate content (such as Holocaust denial) were being made available to our patrons, passed off as real books through one of our digital lending services. I and many of my colleagues nationwide immediately demanded the company remove the titles and develop a plan to prevent such a thing from happening again. But who knows how much damage has already been done?
The constant diligence — against AI slop being passed as authentic, AI confusing library patrons with hallucinated books, AI use in hiring and so making it difficult to guide patrons with career assistance, and AI's harmful impact on our patrons' mental health — is exhausting.
Burnout
Put all of the above on library workers’ shoulders, and it’s no wonder some find themselves burning out under the pressure. Exacerbating the situation are the countless instances of librarians being harassed online and in person, being called “groomers” and “pedophiles” just for doing our jobs and defending the right to read. The well-documented case of school librarian Amanda Jones is, sadly, not unique. In fact, there’s a whole dang documentary about what so many librarians and other library workers are facing right now. This is in addition to the ever-present sexual harassment that is common in the profession.
Why There’s Hope
Despite how dire this all may seem, there are still plenty of victories to celebrate: Amanda Jones won her defamation lawsuit against one of her harassers. Professional organizations such as PEN America, Authors Against Book Bans, EveryLibrary, and the Office of Intellectual Freedom have stepped up to combat book bans, including creating resources like Unite Against Book Bans Book Résumés. Book challenges seem to be slowing overall, with a decrease between 2023 and 2024. This past election, right-wing and Moms For Liberty–backed candidates didn’t fare nearly as well as they’d hoped. Library levies in most states, including Republican-controlled Ohio passed. A court ordered the IMLS and all its grants to be reinstated. Professional organizations are researching burnout and new resources are becoming available, including the upcoming book Enhance Your Library, Enhance Your Well-Being.
Most importantly, everyday people are standing up to defend libraries, library workers, and the right to read. You can be part of the solution by using your library, letting your library know you appreciate their service, and, most importantly, showing up for every election — big and small, at every level — and voting for candidates who will support libraries, their funding, and intellectual freedom. If you have the time and energy to give, consider running for your local school board or library board, volunteer for advocacy organizations, or, if you can spare it, throw these organizations a few bucks. There are more library lovers than haters, and if we just show up, we can keep America’s libraries strong.
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