Your legislators want to hear how the president's executive order, closing the Institute of Museums and Libraries, affects you and your families. Please use this form to share your thoughts and stories. With the defunding of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, we may lose the Commonwealth Catalog, which lets you borrow books and other items from across the state. 4,800 items were borrowed from libraries in other networks last year.

IMLS funding is distributed through the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.

This year OCLN expects to receive approximately $100,000 in supplemental funding to purchase ebooks and audiobooks. The network has already spent about $100,000  this year for 2,369  items and our member libraries have spent $640,000 on 26,345 items. We have more than 90,000 active holds with an average waiting time of 59 days. 

Please share your thoughts on these services and the potential budget cuts and we will forward them to your legislators.