S8E1 The Evolving Role of Maine’s Libraries: Funding, Freedom, and Community
In this episode, library leaders from across Maine share how their roles reflect the modern mission of public libraries and why these institutions remain vital to their communities. Listeners will learn how Maine libraries are adapting to meet today’s needs, the impact of federal funding cuts, and the strategies librarians employ to defend intellectual freedom amid growing pressures for censorship. The conversation also explores libraries’ role in climate action, the challenges of ensuring equitable digital access, and inspiring stories of how libraries—especially in rural areas—are fostering education, resilience, and stronger community connections.
Transcript
[00:00:00] Lori Fisher: That’s what we do. It is not just books. It is about all of the different things we have talked about because our communities need us to help make our tax monies be spent efficiently, effectively, and to address specific community needs.
[00:00:19] Eric Miller: Hello and welcome back to Maine Policy Matters, the official podcast of the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center at the University of Maine, where we discuss the policy matters that are most important to Maine’s people and why Maine policy matters at the local, state, and national levels. My name is Eric Miller and I’ll be your host.
[00:00:35] Today we’ll be interviewing Lori Fisher, Jennifer Wood, Ben Treat, and Michelle Sampson on the importance of Maine’s Public Libraries.
[00:00:44] Lori Fisher came to the Maine State Library from the New Hampshire State Library, where she has worked as the Assistant State Librarian since May, 2019. Prior to her work at the State Library, Ms.
[00:00:56] Fisher was director of the Baker Free Library in Bow, New Hampshire for 11 years. In addition to Ms. Fisher’s experience at the State Library, she’s active in several professional organizations. She serves as treasurer of the Chief Officers of Library Agencies, the National Organization for State Librarians, and as the Chair of the Maine School and Library Network board since 2024.
[00:01:21] She has also been an American Library Association Policy Corps member since 2019, and an incoming member of the American Library Association Intellectual Freedom Committee for a two year term, starting in July, 2025. Fisher also has received recognition for her work within the library profession, including the 2017 New Hampshire Library Trustees Association Library Director of the Year Award, the 2017 Ann Geisel Award of Merit from New Hampshire Library Association, the 2020 New Hampshire Library Trustees Association, Dorothy M. Little Award, and the 2021 Impact Award from the New Hampshire School Media Library Association.
[00:02:04] Jennifer Wood is the library director of the Wyndham Public Library in Wyndham, Maine. She has worked in public libraries for over 30 years and is a past attendee of American Library Association’s Leadership Symposium, past President of New England Library Association and Maine Library Association, and has also held a variety of other library association positions.
[00:02:28] She’s currently the American Library Association, Maine Chapter counselor. She lives in Sebago, Maine with her husband, two boys and two fluffy dogs.
[00:02:38] Ben Treat is the director of the Bango Public Library. Treat, has worked in public and academic libraries for more than 25 years, and he lives in Bangor, Maine with his family.
[00:02:48] Michelle Sampson is the executive director of the York Public Library. She had started as an archivist and worked up to several librarian and director positions across New England before landing her current role in 2016.
[00:03:02] Public libraries across Maine have undergone a significant transformation over the years. What might have once been considered quiet places for borrowing books are now vibrant, multifaceted centers of community life adapting to the expanding needs of their patrons. This shift in the modern role of libraries means they’ve taken on new responsibilities, becoming essential partners in education, local resilience, and community building and outreach.
[00:03:26] As these roles need to be filled more now than ever, libraries are usually the main institutions that try to provide for all of these dire community needs. However, filling all of the town’s incredibly diverse needs from tech support to communal center, to learning space to food bank, comes with increasing demands on resources and libraries often face a complex web of funding pressures, which can particularly impact the smaller institutions in rural areas, according to Deborah Clark and Jenny Smith’s Maine Policy Review article.
[00:03:57] “What’s keeping public library trustees up at night?” Maine is one of only 11 states that do not provide direct state funding to local libraries. Because of this, the Maine State Library also allocates some of its federal and state funding to support additional statewide services, scholarships, and professional guidance to local libraries.
[00:04:15] This is a fantastic start, but as the Maine Public Library statistics data showed that while quote, a median municipal appropriation of $43,400 for a fiscal year 2023 was for libraries, the amount covered in average of 63% of operating expenses, leaving them on their own to fundraise for the remaining average of $66,506 per library just to keep the doors open.
[00:04:45] Put simply, municipal funding just isn’t cutting it. In an era of rapid change, libraries also find themselves at the intersection of critical societal conversations. They’re increasingly seen as key players in addressing broad issues like climate change, the housing crisis, and food insecurity. And to do this, they must engage communities and provide vital resources, often severely understaffed and with little sustainable funding.
[00:05:09] Simultaneously, they navigate the complexities of digital content and access driving to provide equitable access to a growing array of eBooks and other digital media. And perhaps most fundamentally, Maine’s public libraries remain steadfast in their commitment to intellectual freedom, actively defending the freedom, and to read amidst increasing budget pressures.
[00:05:30] Maine’s libraries continue to serve as vital community hubs demonstrating a remarkable positive impact on the lives of their residents. But they cannot continue in this multifarious role without the support of robust state municipality collaboration. And now onto our panel discussion.
[00:05:50] Hello everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Could you all share what your positions are at your libraries and what your role entails? Lori, start with you.
[00:05:59] Lori Fisher: Hi, my name is Lori Fisher. I am the Maine State Librarian. The Maine State Librarian is hired by the Maine Library Commission, which is a 17 member board appointed by the governor.
[00:06:10] My role is to supervise the 34 employees at the Maine State Library and to provide services statewide through a couple of departments, public outreach, library development, as well as collections.
[00:06:25] Eric Miller: Thank you very much, Michelle.
[00:06:28] Michelle Sampson: Hi, my name’s Michelle Sampson. I’m the Executive Director of the York Public Library.
[00:06:33] We are not actually not a municipal department, though we currently receive about 70% of our operating budget from the town. We are a 5 0 1 C3 organization governed by the York Public Library Association’s board of trustees. I mentioned this because while my role is to oversee library operations and services, and those would include programs, staffing, collections, et cetera, since the library is not a town department, my role also includes services typically administered by a municipality such as human resources, finance, facilities and grounds, and as a nonprofit, fundraising is the cherry on the top of that sundae.
[00:07:19] Eric Miller: Ben, how about you?
[00:07:20] Ben Treat: Hi I’m Ben Treat. I’m the director of the Bangor Public Library. We’re one of the larger public libraries, so highlighting that is important. Private nonprofit. We receive about 67% of our funding from the city of Bangor. The rest is drawn from our endowment, or raised in private donations or our annual fund and other giving, or earned through a contract with the state library as an area of reference and resource center.
[00:07:43] So we, for the northern, eastern parts of the state, as an area of resource center, I’m responsible for keeping the library funded and safe and welcoming and operating within this mission and all of that. And that’s all super important. That’s part of being a director of anything, right? But I also feel like librarians in general and library directors are responsible for really encouraging people from their region to be attentive to arts and culture and literacy and the life of the mind, and taking delight in stories and we’re the storytelling species.
[00:08:12] So delighting in that is important.
[00:08:15] Eric Miller: I’m excited to dig into all of those things. Last but not least, Jen.
[00:08:18] Jen Alvino Wood: Jen Alvino Wood. I’m the library director for the town of Wyndham, and unlike Michelle and Ben, my library is a municipal department, so I am a member of the town’s department head team. So it looks a little different in the way that my role interacts with the town.
[00:08:40] I do have the support of other departments, so I work closely with our Parks and Recreation office, our public works, our human resources department within this town, police fire. So we have a lot of resources to work together and collaborate with other town departments in the way that we provide our services to the community.
[00:09:00] But much of the day-to-day management looks similar in providing our services. We don’t have to fundraise, which in this climate is a benefit. Our, a hundred percent of our support comes from the taxpayers of Wyndham.
[00:09:15] Eric Miller: Interesting that the difference in the municipality versus non municipal funding.
[00:09:19] So how have the roles and responsibilities of public libraries in Maine evolved over the years and what do you see as their most critical functions today? Lori, how about you give us some insight first?
[00:09:32] Lori Fisher: Sure. I think one of the main functions of libraries is and has been, information access. That has been since the inception of libraries, the sort of core mission.
[00:09:41] What has changed over time is how that information access is provided to various members of communities, as well as the types of information that people are interested in. This is mainly due to a couple things. There’s the cultural and socioeconomic changes that have occurred over the past, I’d say good hundred years of the speed of how information is coming at us.
[00:10:06] And that also goes to the point of technology. Libraries aren’t just books anymore. That’s what people tend to think about when they think of libraries. But really today they are information hubs that also bring people together. And I think that’s the information access point that gets lost a lot of times today because there is nowhere in many communities for people to just gather in a nonpartisan space and have a conversation about issues that matter.
[00:10:34] And libraries do that. And that is part of their information access role, in my opinion, across the nation and the world. This isn’t just a Maine thing, this is in general.
[00:10:43] Eric Miller: Okay. Interesting. I, and I’ve been constantly surprised at how much is available at my local library in form of tools and their music and all sorts of things.
[00:10:54] So that information element that you talk about, I also want to go to Ben talking about the cultural and some of the artistic and community importance of the library as well as information.
[00:11:08] Ben Treat: We’re fortunate to have a lot of space that we can use as gallery space in the library. We have a right staircase gallery space where we have rotating art exhibits, and then four or three other exhibit gallery spaces that are rotating every two months with different community artists and other exhibits.
[00:11:26] So that access to the art that’s being produced in the community is valuable as well as partnerships with performing arts groups local ballet groups, and the symphony and all those different organizations that perform at libraries. And this is something that everything that we do is free, right?
[00:11:42] So if we have to pay the artists to participate, then as is common, then that comes from public funding that we receive, and then the public gets to go for free. So it’s that sort of, creating a space where people can have access. We don’t have an enormous performance hall, but we do have public spaces where people can come in and experience arts and culture programming.
[00:12:02] And part of that starts very early on with children. A lot of people’s experience at the library starts as an infant coming into infant story time. And so the ways that our children’s librarians across the state are getting kids engaged with the kinetic and the musical and the literary elements of reading a book and having a song and, all the different pieces of that, it starts early.
[00:12:25] And so that’s really, really important, an important function of libraries is promoting literacy across, across the lifespan. It’s starting from infancy all the way through to aging populations so that there’s a lot of arts and culture work that happens.
[00:12:40] One other thing that I’d say libraries are seeing themselves responding to is a need for basic needs to be met. There are a lot of librarians who have found themselves responding to a lack of basic needs in their community that they’re witnessing just from who’s walking in the door and what they’re asking about. And it could be that the person comes in saying, I’ve been told that this is the place I go to apply for heating assistance.
[00:13:04] And in fact. They were told by the government, you need to go to your library to apply for heating assistance ’cause they don’t have digital access at home. So a lot of the things that Lori highlighted that are absolutely a major part of what libraries do today, that also creates a special role for us in rural communities and with place-bound populations where we’re supporting people who don’t have the internet access at home, or don’t have the devices or the expertise to be able to navigate government websites to apply for support with their basic needs.
[00:13:35] Eric Miller: That’s really interesting. I didn’t realize that some of the administrative and governmental resources were delegated to the library like that. Jen, how do you view the role and responsibility of a library evolving over time?
[00:13:50] Jen Alvino Wood: I had an opportunity recently to chat with some new leaders in the field and this question came up and I really feel strongly that libraries still do all those traditional library services that people think of. We’re a quiet space for reflection. We have, books and resources and access to information and access to computers and digital services and training and things like that. But what I think libraries have become and Ben started to touch on this, is libraries are part of the social safety net of our communities.
[00:14:24] And I see it in my own work and collaborating with other department heads. I’m at the table of our age friendly Wyndham committee that supports older adults aging in place. I am at the table, or our drug free community coalition supporting youth in our communities to keep kids off drugs. And so libraries have a place at those tables because we support our communities and they come to us for all these different services.
[00:14:51] And so I think it’s really important that we’re visible in that way and that people know that, they can come to us when they’re, they have that need because we might not be able to solve that need for them, but we will find the information and the access they need to it.
[00:15:06] There was a time last year, I think there were some big storms last Spring and the Wyndham community we’re close to Portland, but we still consider ourselves fairly rural. And we were, the community was out of power and so many people came to the library because we were one of the first places to get internet and heat and all the services back. So people came and worked here. They came to keep warm. And so we’re really built into our fire and emergency services department’s emergency action plan to provide that space for people when they’re without heat and hot water and a space to be that’s warm.
[00:15:46] And so I started working on with our age-friendly Wyndham committee, disaster planning. And it’s because people naturally think of the library as a safe space and a place that they can come to have their needs met. And I think they should feel that way, and it’s a really important role to play.
[00:16:05] Eric Miller: That’s really interesting. I hadn’t considered that before.
[00:16:08] Michelle, same question if you have anything to add, but also, have you felt that this role of the library, not just serving as a resource center for checking out books, but the range of services available, how that has evolved over time, is this a fairly new phenomenon that people can get so much from library?
[00:16:28] Michelle Sampson: Looking back on when I first got into library work, not that many years ago, but when I first did, I don’t remember ever hearing even in library school about things like, food insecurity or health and safety type issues. That was never anything that was talked about. But now you know, another example, some of the other examples, in addition to what Ben, Jen and Lori have mentioned, there are some libraries who employ social workers, for example, because comes down to it.
[00:17:04] We’re dealing with people and their need, whether they be access to information, whether they be school lunches, because many libraries became pickup hubs for school lunches during COVID, and a lot of libraries as well have been trained in and have a stash of Narcan in the event of overdoses. These were things that were not talked about, at least not where I went to school, and I don’t even remember these things being an issue until maybe 15 years ago, and maybe it was just because of the places where I worked.
[00:17:40] I don’t know. So what has changed really is the world that we live in and the needs of our communities and the tools we have at our disposal. And kind of a, an overarching theme in terms of critical functions would be connection. We’re incredibly connected if you’re talking about technology, and there are great things that technology can help us achieve, but it’s also a double-edged sword when you think about things like misinformation and disinformation.
[00:18:12] And oddly enough, all of that in the community connectedness has made us less emotionally, physically, and spiritually connected. And a few years ago, there was a report that the Surgeon General issued on what he had called the epidemic of loneliness and isolation. And he specifically called out libraries as part of the community’s social infrastructure. And that social infrastructure would include places like churches, parks and playgrounds, sports and civic organizations, anything that promotes or supports interaction with and connection to others.
[00:18:56] Eric Miller: Yeah, it feels like the library’s just quietly always been there, and it’s starting to be, or in my mind I’m realizing more or less in real time how significant it is in the community as a public resource.
[00:19:10] So the Trump administration made significant cuts to library funding, which affected the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Can you explain what those cuts meant for Maine libraries and communities that rely on them, especially for smaller libraries throughout rural Maine? Lori, it makes sense to start, start with you.
[00:19:29] Lori Fisher: Yeah, let me set the stage and then I think Ben, Jen and Michelle will do a great job talking about the trickle down effect of that, which we are still in the middle of figuring out what that is right now. So with the Trump administration’s White House executive orders and attempt to defund the Institute of Museum and Library Services since 1997, the Maine State Library, as well as all state libraries nationwide, have received LSTA, which stands for Library Services and Technology Act grant funding on an annual basis.
[00:19:59] It’s based on a population formula per state. We, at this point in Maine, last year in federal fiscal year 24, received 1.5 million. So with what happened with the Trump administration, our funding became inaccessible and we had asked for an advance on our federal fiscal 25 monies because the way we spend our monies is on a calendar year.
[00:20:22] We always, given that the congressional budget is later and later, because the federal fiscal year technically starts on October 1st last year for fiscal 25, but Congress didn’t vote in a budget until March. So there’s always a gap, and the state should not have to cover that gap for the personnel services that are on the grant.
[00:20:40] So I put in for an advance. That advance monies became inaccessible when IMLS was basically all the employees are put on administrative leave, so that triggered a layoff process. We had 13 employees who were either fully or partially funded by LSTA monies. We ended up after going through the layoff process, which by the way, involved a union contract and MSL leadership, that’s the department heads and myself had no choice as to who stayed and who went.
[00:21:09] This was all based on seniority. The state union contract, and there are bumping rights in there, so if you’re a more senior employee in a certain class, you could bump another employee in that class out of their job. So it took three weeks. We ended up having two employees who moved into vacant positions that were state funded. Three positions were, the layoff was rescinded because we did receive access to our funds again, and 25% more. So we have access to 50% of the usual funding. And then eight staff people were laid off on May 8th. So what this means is losing approximately in the end, about a fifth of our staff, means that we do need to reorganize and have tighter priorities around critical services.
[00:21:55] And we can’t be everything to everyone. I just wanna say that upfront. And we can’t do more with less of that magnitude. So we’re in the throes right now of reorganizing and figuring out how we’re going to move forward. So this impacted library development, which provides support services to library statewide academic school public in half.
[00:22:17] So they have half the staff they used to, and it also really affected our public outreach services as well as they lost a staff person at Maine InfoNet. And I mentioned Maine InfoNet because they provide the foundational online services that libraries need. It’s basically they provide the infrastructure for online catalog to all types of libraries across Maine. So that facilitates our inter-library loan program and van delivery.
[00:22:43] So what we’re trying to do now is figure out how we are going to move forward and what the priorities are, and what are we going to have to either pause or let go of. I don’t know if we’re going to receive the other 50% of our fiscal 25 LSTA funding.
[00:23:00] And at this point, the Trump administration has zeroed out in the president’s budget. Any funding for IMLS for fiscal 26. There is a possibility it could be added back in by Congress, but I’m really not sure that’s going to happen given the Republican majority in both the House and the Senate. So we’re operating under the reality that all we have right now is 50% of our usual grant, and we probably won’t have that money going forward.
[00:23:28] So what I can say before I turn it over to the rest of you for impacts and as it trickles down, is that van delivery is a top priority and we never used federal funds for van delivery. So van delivery is going to be okay. It’s funded both by state monies as well as monies from libraries who participate.
[00:23:47] So that is a huge service, as I think a lot of your listeners will know because last year we had to pause van delivery because of an appeal to an RFP and there was a huge outcry. I cannot, I lost count of the number of emails I got both from librarians, patrons. Everybody under the sun was very upset that van delivery had to be paused for eight weeks.
[00:24:08] So critical service-that’s gonna continue. But we do have choices to make around services such as databases. The pace at which we can get smaller libraries into consortia to have online catalog services, talking book services, books by mail services is going to be revamped and constrained as far as who can participate in books by mail across the state.
[00:24:31] So we’ve got some choices to make and it’s unfortunate, but it also I’m looking at it as an opportunity for us to refine how we approach library services, what we focus our intention and advocacy on as far as what we do and the value for what we provide statewide. I think that’s the only way to really, move forward is to find the opportunity in the very painful process of letting eight people go on our staff, who some of them had been with MSL for over a decade. And this wasn’t just jobs to them, this was their career. They believed passionately in the value of the, what they were doing for citizens statewide in a variety of areas.
[00:25:16] So we’re trying to move past that, but we’re not out of the woods yet because we’re still in the throes of transition.
[00:25:23] Eric Miller: Wow. That’s quite the whirlwind to have to navigate. Michelle, how are you all in at York?
[00:25:32] Michelle Sampson: Well, we are obviously taking second and third and fourth looks at our budgets, our upcoming specifically for us, our upcoming budget, and trying to plan for the unknown, really.
[00:25:47] The LSTA grant funds, I think for many libraries, but especially the smaller, more remote libraries, they’re gonna be decimated by these cuts because, as Lori said, they help fund high-speed internet access, they’re funding digital media and databases like Ancestry and other research databases. They are funding downloadable books and eBooks that otherwise, I mean, we wouldn’t be able to afford the collection we supplement, but even that is ridiculously expensive.
[00:26:22] So being able to pool funds with other libraries in the state to build up a big database of digital media is huge. I don’t know that it’s really been so much of trepidation for library construction in Maine. I do know of a library actually in New Hampshire. It was a neighboring town where I used to live.
[00:26:45] Who for decades have been trying to get a new building because their building was lovely, but it was really tiny. They received a grant from the NEH, the National Endowment for the Humanities back in 2022, I believe, and they just recently found out it was clawed back and we’re talking about a quarter of a million dollars.
[00:27:08] And library construction, whether it’s new buildings or renovations, is practically non-existent in New Hampshire. Most of the libraries in that state anyway, and I suspect in Maine as well, haven’t really been touched since maybe the mid eighties when there were more funds available at that time, as I recall.
[00:27:29] So we’re gonna have to be creative, I think, in how we source grants, fundraising, things like that. And it might mean that we’re collaborating more with public library adjacent. Organizations, other area, nonprofits, schools, et cetera, so that we can pull resources there as well. But it also means with so many funding cuts, that more organizations are gonna be competing for the opportunities that do remain available.
[00:27:59] So a little stressful looking forward.
[00:28:02] Eric Miller: That makes sense. Ben, how about you?
[00:28:05] Ben Treat: I agree with everything that’s been said, and I’ll add that this has a trickle down effect on municipalities and state government for all the services that were supported by the federal government, which Donald Trump has named wasteful.
[00:28:20] If people view those as valuable, you now have to get the state government to raise your taxes so that you can pay for them, right? Because the Feds have decided not to spend the taxes you paid to them already on these resources. So I don’t know what the federal government is gonna spend that money on, but it’s not on these things that your listeners want from libraries.
[00:28:39] They’re gonna have to ask to spend more tax dollars, to have more taxes taken out by state and municipal government in order to afford the resources that are not wasteful, that are desired by libraries or statewide. So there’s that impact where, it is a taxing fight donald Trump pushed onto state and local governments.
[00:28:59] On top of that, there’s an impact on the ability of folks that give to libraries. Two of us are nonprofit libraries. One’s the state library, but even municipal libraries that don’t fundraise themselves often have friends groups and other organizations that help in various ways. The one Big Beautiful Bill act that just passed as of this recording just passed the House and as it at the Senate cuts back what wealthy households and what corporations can deduct from their income on taxes.
[00:29:29] And it institutes new taxes on large foundation, which are often a source of innovation for libraries and for nonprofit organizations. So it’s a another way that the federal government currently is operating or proposing to operate in a way that will be harmful to public libraries because our ability to draw down funds will be harmed if foundation dollars go to the federal government not to be spent on libraries instead of going to libraries to be spent on innovation and new work that we want to do and that our public wants from us.
[00:30:02] So what we’re seeing is a tightening down of resources, an attack on the ability of people to be charitable to their public libraries and other public entities. So that’s the negative side of it. The positive side though, I will say that the Maine Library Association has a very strong history of advocacy and a strong legislative committee that works to identify opportunities for advocacy, both for library lovers and for libraries to advocate with legislators at both the state and the federal level, to let them know about problems that we’re facing, the ways that different bills will affect libraries.
[00:30:41] Sometimes a bill is proposed and the person who proposed it was not thinking about libraries at all, and they don’t know what the impact will be. And it’s an opportunity for libraries to come forward and say, Hey, did you know that this will have this impact on public libraries or on nonprofit organizations, or on municipal organizations?
[00:30:59] Other times, it’s not legislation. It’s an active and executive branch, and the legislators can speak back and say, well, we appropriated those funds and we’d really like to see you cut the checks. And so that’s a time when it’s important for people to reach out as well. So there’s a lot of opportunities for advocacy.
[00:31:15] I’d say there’s also a larger ecosystem that we operate within that also supports us. I feel like there’s a lot of good out there, but I also feel like there’s a lot that, whether intentional or not, there’s different legislation and then executive actions that have been harmful to libraries. And it’s continuing and it’s spreading further and further out into other things other than just LSTA funds, although that in and itself is terrifically harmful.
[00:31:42] Eric Miller: Yes. Thank you. That was wonderful. I was not aware of the proposed increased taxes to foundations. Jen, I’m curious how you’re in a slightly different position, but it sounds like you still have some impacts you’re navigating too. If I’m interpreting some of what Michelle and Ben said correctly.
[00:31:59] Jen Alvino Wood: Yeah, I would say we are like others have stated, kind of waiting to see the results of how well this decision will directly impact us here in Wyndham. But it could be a number of ways. So like Michelle mentioned, I’ve reviewed my budget just to see different scenarios and how I might respond, should things go a certain way.
[00:32:20] But I’ve also been spending a lot of time chatting with my town manager and our finance director just to make them aware of, how things might impact my budget in different ways. I’m a member of the Maine Library Association board as well as the American Library Association. I’m a chapter counselor, so I’ve spent a lot of time working with our congressional delegation on advocacy.
[00:32:47] We have, thankfully, a very supportive congressional delegation, Senator King and Collins and representatives Pingree and Golden. They’ve sent letters on behalf of libraries in support of IMLS funding. They have signed onto what’s called a Dear Appropriator letter, which encourages the the Appropriations Committee.
[00:33:11] Is that correct? The appropriate- so the Dear Appropriator letters encourage the members of the Appropriations Committee to, fund and place into the budget certain items. And so Senator Collins is on that committee and she’s a longtime library supporter. So I’ve spent a lot of time, digging into how we tell our stories to get the support from the people in our communities to, really help us advocate to bring these funds back and to libraries on the national level.
[00:33:42] So really just spending a lot of time talking just like this about how great libraries are and how all the things that we do that we’re not just books, all the services that we provide in the hopes that we can move the needle and continue the services with the funding support that we need.
[00:34:01] Eric Miller: Yeah, that’s interesting. There’s so much work in organizations that are outside of the public eye that make all this stuff happen. So I appreciate you serving on those boards and making it happen for us.
[00:34:12] So the funding headwinds are a bit more in the shorter term of what we’ve experienced while have long-term consequences of course, but there have been some headwinds coming over the past decade or so in the form of book bans and censorship.
[00:34:26] In the era of growing censorship pressures, what strategies are Maine’s public libraries using to defend the freedom to read, and how do they maintain their commitment to intellectual freedom? Ben, if you wouldn’t mind taking a crack at that first. We’ll go on everyone else after.
[00:34:41] Ben Treat: I think the number one thing that people need to know about library collections is how much time and attention goes into that collection development work.
[00:34:51] And so when people think about censorship, often the folks pushing for that, they have an incomplete picture of exactly how librarians go about actually selecting materials and adding them to the collection or deselecting materials to remove from the collection based on, the condition of the materials and other factors.
[00:35:08] So the best way to get at that is most public libraries, certainly those of us here are all, do we have collection development policies and we explain what is our approach to actually collecting materials. And then on top of that, we have a process for challenging materials.
[00:35:24] So if somehow an item got into the collection, some libraries might accept a lot of donated materials and maybe something was added that there’s a reason to challenge. Well, people can challenge things. It goes through a process and there’s criteria that are used, and it’s the same criteria that we use for deselecting books when we’re just going through the collection and removing older, outdated, or poor condition materials. So there’s a whole process for doing that, and it’s important to foreground the positive.
[00:35:52] I think whenever we talk about censorship so that people are aware that there’s a whole lot of good work that gets done to build the collection and to remember that there’s an organized way to respond to attempts to remove things from collections. And the other thing is that it’s important for people to be aware of the American tradition, and I would say even constitutional right, freedom of speech, which includes free access to information and the limits on that freedom.
[00:36:18] There are few, and the few limits are things like. Inciting violence. Like you can’t stand up and say, let’s go punch that guy, like, that’s not permitted. And if there was a let’s go punch these people book, we wouldn’t put that in the collection, probably wouldn’t get published. Obscenity is the other thing.
[00:36:34] And that’s where a lot of the attention gets put, is that obscenity is not considered protected. The Supreme Court has given us a very clear test as to what counts as obscenity. And so library challenge policies harken back to the Miller test established by the Supreme Court of the United States as the guidance that we have as to whether something is in fact obscene and should not be in the collection.
[00:36:55] That’s a method that we have. We have actual procedures to use and we try to make people aware of that, that you should have free access to things that you don’t necessarily agree with. Just like you should have free access to things you do agree with, but somebody down the road doesn’t agree with.
[00:37:09] And that’s part of that freedom that we have as Americans that’s so vital and that libraries are an important location for that freedom to be made available.
[00:37:19] Eric Miller: That’s wonderful. Michelle or Lori, do you have anything you’d like to add to the censorship and freedom of access to literature?
[00:37:27] Michelle Sampson: Well, we had already mentioned the collection development policies, but it’s, I think it’s important to have all of your policies in order because it’s not just the freedom to read that we are protecting.
[00:37:40] So we should have policies for displays, for programs, meeting room use, social media, patron conduct, and they should all be posted and regularly reviewed. My board has also voted to adopt the American Library Association’s Freedom to Read statement, the Library Bill of Rights, and the Library Code of Ethics, and all of those we have on our website.
[00:38:06] I think in the event of an actual challenge, it’s important to have a list of library cheerleaders in your community. So when you do have a challenge and you need voices, you’re not left scrambling and also standing up for each other. An example I can give is a few years ago, the middle school in our town had a book challenge and I put out a call to both current and former library trustees and staff and some of those library cheerleaders.
[00:38:36] And when it was discussed at the school board meetings, we were there and we stood up and we spoke up in support of our colleague and retaining the book and it was ultimately retained.
[00:38:48] I will add a few things. First, I will just say that libraries are the original recyclers when we’re talking about library of things, books, we’re pulling resources so that we can purchase things that the entire community can use rather than individual families or individuals going out and purchasing those things.
[00:39:07] And there is also, it’s now a national initiative called the Sustainable Libraries Initiative. And Curtis Memorial was the first library certified, and she’s a big proponent of it. And even on the national scale right now, she was named a Mover and Shaker, Library Journal Mover and Shaker a few years back for her work.
[00:39:28] But we’re part of this certification process and it’s not just climate change, it’s, financial sustainability. And it’s a good opportunity to partner with other like-minded organizations for information sharing. Jen said, with Wyndham. We have a sustainability coordinator in the town of York as well, and she’s been super helpful.
[00:39:51] Lori Fisher: I think that’s a really important point, Michelle. I think libraries, one of the biggest lines of defense they have is being able to have those conversations around policies with community members, making sure your policies are in line, and knowing who, and when to mobilize. Because you never know where a challenge is gonna come from.
[00:40:10] A lot of the challenges, just as background lately in the past few years, have been from organized national groups trying to challenge multiple books at a time. This isn’t a parent who’s upset about one book in a library collection. This is an organized effort to try to take certain types of books, mainly those that relate to LGBTQIA+ themes out of libraries.
[00:40:37] And I say this because I’ve been a member of the Alas at Policy Corps. Since 2019, and I’ve worked on this issue on the national level for a couple of years now. So the most important thing I would stress is that your listeners here, if you have not signed up to receive news from Unite Against Book Bans. That is the organization on the national level that really is trying to get the word out to people on how they can be effective advocates in their local communities when these issues arise. And it is paying attention to what is going on in your local community, knowing if your school board has a public comment section during their school board meetings.
[00:41:16] And where does that fall? Does that fall at the beginning of the meeting or the end? Knowing on your library side at the library trustee meeting, do they have a public comment section in their meetings and where does it fall? There’s a lot of things that individuals in a community, if they feel strongly about the right, for people to be able to choose what they want to read, and that librarians do have the professional expertise to provide collections to that community, they need to stand up.
[00:41:42] So the other, just one last thing on this is we have, are seeing a rise in some soft censorship issues. And by that I mean individuals taking actions to try to prevent pieces of library collections from being available to the public. So one example that always struck me from my previous work in New Hampshire as the assistant state librarian was there was one town where one of the library board of trustee members came in during June and checked out all of the pride display books and told the librarian that they would not return them because they did not think these books should be accessed by community members.
[00:42:21] Now, there’s a lot wrong with this action, but that’s its term: soft censorship, because it’s an individual deciding on their own that a community can’t access these particular items. So one of the educational pieces is making sure that library directors and library staff around the state understand what soft censorship is. And MLA has been doing a really great job with that, with some of their professional development opportunities and how to deal with that because it takes a lot of different forms. We’re down on censorship pieces right now in Maine. We haven’t had as many formal challenges, but there is also a cooling effect of in certain parts of the state that are definitely more conservative, where reporting challenges is not as frequent.
[00:43:09] So there are probably challenges happening that we are not being made aware of. So I would just encourage listeners here to make sure that they pay attention in their communities. Look at Unite Against Book Bans and join up for their newsletters so that you can get information on how to advocate in your community.
[00:43:25] And just be aware, because it happens everywhere. It’s not just in certain places, it’s everywhere across the United States.
[00:43:33] Eric Miller: I think the overarching threads that really resonated with me throughout that is the power of community and the library as a democratic force that as it involves people and people come together to make decisions and speak their minds and unite around a cause.
[00:43:52] Recently in Maine Policy Review, there was a piece published about libraries as being a part of the frontline of addressing climate change and getting climate action organized. Would any of you be able to speak to your experience, engaging with local community environmental organizations to address climate and collaborate with people on a cause that doesn’t seem necessarily intuitively, directly related.
[00:44:18] Lori Fisher: I’d like to challenge you on that, Eric, thinking that it doesn’t directly relate because it’s more about community resilience than it is about climate change. So I have a couple of examples to share from across the state of things that relate to this with climate resilience and community resilience.
[00:44:36] For example, a lot of libraries now have library of things, which I don’t know if you’ve heard of that, but it’s where a library or a consortium of libraries will purchase stuff to lend out to patrons. And this can include gardening tools, power tools, post hole diggers, cameras, binoculars, things where not only are they trying to cut down on the need for individuals in communities to purchase these items, but they’re trying to get people outside. To help them understand the vital nature it is for humans to be interactive with our outside environment.
[00:45:13] We also have, libraries as heating and cooling facilities. Palermo does this. Buck Memorial offers shelter and connectivity pieces, which many libraries do across the state when there are power outages. We also have libraries such as Millinocket, New Sharon and Bethel and Caribou that do seed libraries. Now that’s where we’re trying to not just have an establishment of community gardens, but the ability for people to grow their own food, to become more sustainable in their own local area and not be so dependent on Big Agra out there.
[00:45:46] And that’s a huge piece of it. And the last piece is a lot of libraries do a lot of education and convening of community around this with author and education talks. And there’s a lot of different Maine organizations that libraries call on to do those kinds of things. And beyond Maine I’m gonna mention with American Library Association, sustainability is one of their core values.
[00:46:06] So it’s more than just climate, it’s more about community resilience. And we are already doing a lot of these things. We just hadn’t labeled it as such. So it really, to me, it comes down to how do we make our communities more sustainable going forward? And the library can be a key hub with that.
[00:46:24] Eric Miller: What you were just talking about there in community resiliency reminds me of exactly what Jen was talking about earlier, and the library being part of the Wyndham Emergency Action Plan is a place that people go to find security, enough time of uncertainty or emergency.
[00:46:39] Does anyone else have anything to add on the sustainability and climate and community resilience front?
[00:46:45] Jen Alvino Wood: Well, I would just add, I talked a little bit about working with other department heads and coordinating and collaborating on programming and Wyndham has a sustainability coordinator that works in our public works department and while that position is probably more about soil and water and erosion control and things like that out of public works, there is a lot of community outreach and education that position does. And so that position has partnered with the library, this, as Lori mentioned, author talks and educational programming and things like that.
[00:47:20] So we have offered here at my library various programs that have included community education, things around climate change and the environment and sustainability. And in addition, Wyndham just went through a whole revision of their trash and recycling program, which, recycling sustainability. And so we were part of getting the word out to community members about the new system. And so it really does go back to those partnerships that you form and being an educational resource for the community.
[00:47:55] Eric Miller: Yeah. That’s wonderful. Michelle,
[00:47:59] Michelle Sampson: Well, as Lori mentioned and others have mentioned too, the cost is crazy high.
[00:48:05] I don’t think the average person realizes that publishers will charge libraries three and four times the amount that they would charge for an individual for the same thing. And, which is crazy when you think about it. I mean, we purchase books, actual books, and at the regular price, usually at a discount actually.
[00:48:25] And I, it’s cheaper for them to manufacture just the digital, to record the digital content, and you don’t have to do anything else. So I think that their profit margins must be pretty great. And I think too, in terms of what Lori said, with Internet access being a basic human right, I don’t think a lot of people realize just how important that was until COVID hit and everybody was trying to do schoolwork from home. And they couldn’t because they didn’t have adequate internet access. In some cases. Many people, their only Internet access is by way of their phone, and that can be difficult to maneuver certain websites on a phone or read papers, what have you, write papers.
[00:49:13] So there’s a lot there.
[00:49:15] Eric Miller: So the digital content has been mentioned a little bit here already, and with increasing demand for digital resources, what are the current challenges Maine libraries face in securing and providing equitable access to eBooks and other digital media? Lori, what’s your perspective on the increasing access to digital resources?
[00:49:36] Lori Fisher: It is challenging, and I think I’ll start more basic, which is MSL has been partnering with the Maine Connectivity Authority for a number of years now, particularly around the Digital Equity Act, which unfortunately, all of those monies have been clawed back, as Ben had said earlier, as part of the White House administration’s effort to curb waste.
[00:49:55] We have a lot of rural remote areas in Maine that do not have adequate access to Internet. And as we all know, Internet is vital to basic life things. Looking for a job, being able to apply for veterans benefits, being able to communicate with someone at the state or federal level on a particular program that helps support your family, and that’s a wide ranging area.
[00:50:21] So I think one of the things that I’m worried about is with these funds being clawed back, what’s gonna happen? Because we do need to expand Internet access through Maine. And right now libraries tend to be the only ones that have reliable Broadband access throughout Maine.
[00:50:40] We have 257 public libraries. Most of them, over 60% of them are nonprofits. Most of them do have a reliable Internet connection through the Maine school and library network, which is a cooperative program between Maine State Library and the University of Maine. We’re waiting right now to hear on a Supreme Court decision around E-Rate funding because universal Service Fund challenges, if that is upheld by the Supreme Court, then we are gonna face some issues with continuing to have reliable Internet through our libraries. Not just to buy by consumers, but through our libraries in communities where there is a huge need among the population, either they live in a space that’s a dead zone. Or they can’t afford to pay what the Internet providers in their area are charging to have just basic Internet access. So I’m concerned about that, and that is something we’re keeping a huge eye on. And currently I am the chair of the MSLN Board, and that is in cooperation with the information and technology agency for the state as well as Department of Education.
[00:51:47] And we have a number of library and educator positions on that board. And we’re all holding our breath right now.
[00:51:54] And then the other piece that you mentioned is the access to digital materials, so the state library with that model. So there are efforts on the national level to have publishers and libraries have conversations there, and that’s been going on for a couple years.
[00:52:08] We haven’t come to a resolution or even a partial resolution yet, but I’m hopeful that if we continue to try to work together, collaboration is key to access to digital resources. No one entity has the monies to provide what people need for information in this digital age that we’re in. So we need to collaborate and we need to do that more, not less.
[00:52:35] Tools, libraries bridge that gap. The last piece of the digital materials piece is eBooks and audiobooks. The biggest gap we have here in Maine is we do not have a statewide access to Kindle compatible eBooks. I’m just gonna state that right up front because any of your listeners who are familiar with libraries, this is one of the biggest complaints we get.
[00:52:55] I’m gonna be working with Maine InfoNet’s executive director James Jackson Sanborn, to address that coming up in 2026. We’re gonna convene a task force and really figure out, okay, we have these monies, this much money, what can we do with that to improve the current model that we have in Maine, which is not addressing the needs of a lot of our consumers.
[00:53:15] Part of the problem with this is the cost for digital materials we can’t control at all. It’s exorbitant. Sometimes eBooks and audiobooks cost 60, 80, a hundred dollars and they have a limited use. Some publishers put a formula on there where you can only, for example, check it out 26 times, and then once those 26 checkouts are done, you have to repurchase it at $80, a hundred dollars.
[00:53:38] It’s unsustainable with that model. So there are efforts on the national level to have publishers and libraries have conversations there, and that’s been going on for a couple years. We haven’t come to a resolution or even a partial resolution yet, but I’m hopeful that if we continue to try to work together, collaboration is key to access to digital resources.
[00:54:00] No one entity has the monies to provide what people need for information in this digital age that we’re in. So we need to collaborate and we need to do that more, not less.
[00:54:11] Eric Miller: Yeah. Really interesting. Now, pivoting more to the more local level. Michelle, what is your perspective on digital content and access?
[00:54:20] Michelle Sampson: Well, I can tell you an initiative that we’re actually just wrapping up today. Tonight, and this I will link back to the Surgeon General’s report about loneliness. May is also Mental Health Awareness month. So we had a series of events throughout the month of May under the umbrella of embracing wellness.
[00:54:39] We partnered with several area organizations like the Rotary Club Hospital Center for Active Living. And we had programs like Mental Health First Aid for Adults. We had another one for teens. We had a program on living with anxiety. There were people who were able to dip their toes into seeing what a what Qigong was like, or to experience a sound bath that’s actually tonight. And there were special specially themed, wellness themed story hours as well.
[00:55:13] And unfortunately during the month of May, there have been three suicides on the bridges connecting Maine and New Hampshire. And so that really brought it home to me anyway, that these are things that the community really needs to have access to.
[00:55:31] And all of the programs have been very well attended and we’ve experienced a lot of excellent feedback for holding such programs. But it’s loneliness and stress and depression. There’s a lot of it.
[00:55:46] Eric Miller: Yeah. I’m experiencing some sticker shock at the price of eBooks and other digital materials. Especially since, like you mentioned, Michelle, the price of a physical book can be even discounted and probably most of them can be checked out more than 26 times.
[00:56:02] Jen, or do you have anything to add on this front?
[00:56:06] Jen Alvino Wood: I will say digital access. Digital equity has, I’ve been on a soapbox about this topic in my work for quite a number of years and what I can say, and I’ll keep it brief because I could go on and on, but there’s so many different levels to this issue.
[00:56:25] It starts with infrastructure and how important it is to get people just connected and how rural Maine is, and it feels like we were making headway with some of the dollars that were coming into the state. And so I’m on another coalition in the Cumberland County Digital Equity Coalition, and it’s in partnership with the Greater Portland Council of Governments and it, we partner with Maine Connectivity Authority and so really about getting people access to the service and also the education that they need to use on the Internet.
[00:57:02] But then to talk about eBooks and pricing and that is a whole other level of this issue. I was in a meeting two weeks ago and it was like the day after the Digital Equity Act monies were clawed back. And it’s so defeating because you’re working toward something that is really important for your community.
[00:57:24] And to have that money vaporize when you know how truly valuable these services that you’re providing are to your communities. It’s really hard.
[00:57:34] Eric Miller: Well, we have covered a wide range of topics here. We’ve talked about the significance and wide ranging services that libraries offer to their communities.
[00:57:42] We’ve talked about some of the challenges that you all have been navigating in recent years, and it really strikes me how libraries serve, as many people refer to as the this third place that people find that they can go for free. They can get resources and information and community and art and culture.
[00:58:03] As we close out, I would love to hear an example of something that reminds you why you do this or some sort of parting thought that you have. Lori, we’ll start with you.
[00:58:13] Lori Fisher: Well, I’d like to give an example of a small and rural library that has combined all of those different aspects you just mentioned into trying to address food insecurity in their community.
[00:58:24] So in Piscataquis County, Thompson Free Library started a read and feed program. Which is a combination bookmobile and mobile food distribution, and this is through the summer. Their youth services librarian makes regular stops throughout their service area to distribute produce from the Piscataquis Regional Food Center, much of which comes from local farms.
[00:58:45] In addition to picking up food produce, this librarian brings free books for all ages that people can, they’re not borrowing them, they’re keeping them. The van is also equipped with a mobile hotspot so that visitors can connect to the Internet while the van is parked in the area. Internet access is still quite a challenge in many households in that service area, and this library received some grant funding to help get this project off the ground from the Good Shepherd Food Banks community driven strategies.
[00:59:12] So again, we’ve got libraries partnering with state and local and national people to try to address a big societal gap in their service area. Now, other libraries besides Thompson Free address, this type of thing, doing little food pantries. Where patrons can pick up non-perishables, fresh produce, some partner with their local CSAs and service drop off points for local food banks.
[00:59:37] So while it may seem at first glance that it’s more than what libraries are, it’s not if you have food insecurity, you are impaired for learning. And we are all about learning and making sure that people from all demographics are able to learn and get access to the information they need to improve their quality of life.
[01:00:00] That’s what we do. It is not just books. It is about all of the different things we have talked about because our communities need us to help make our tax monies be spent efficiently, effectively, and to address specific community needs. And that’s what we do in Maine, and that is what all of the libraries that we’ve mentioned do.
[01:00:20] That’s what MSL tries to do on a regular basis, and we’re gonna continue to do that no matter who tries to take funding away.
[01:00:28] Eric Miller: That’s beautiful. We actually just released a two part series earlier this year on food insecurity in Maine. If anyone would like to take a listen to that, we could have had you on the panel Lori.
[01:00:38] Jen, any final thoughts from you?
[01:00:40] Jen Alvino Wood: Yeah, I guess I would say I’ve worked in libraries for about 30 years and I have always felt that vibrancy that libraries bring to their community is just a treasure. I could talk about so many of the different programs that we do to provide service and information and meeting the needs of our community.
[01:01:05] We have programs around death and dying and the process that people go through end of life issues. Really tough topics for people to talk about is, Michelle mentioned mental health, keeping people connected, fight off isolation, but we also have some really uplifting, that might be more uplifting than that.
[01:01:24] We have a group of people that meet play cribbage every week. We have a chess club that meets every week, and so walking into the building and seeing the community here enjoying the space and feeling that vibrancy, that, and excitement of people learning and experiencing something. We actually have a creative dance movement class that meets in our meeting room, and it sits below, it’s below my office.
[01:01:51] I’ll be sitting here on a Tuesday morning and I’ll hear dance music happening, and our children’s librarian has dance programs as well. So we do provide a quiet space for recollection, but it’s not always a quiet space, and I just love that about libraries, that there’s just a whole spectrum of, programs and offerings that you’ll find here.
[01:02:12] Eric Miller: As someone who hails from the Midwest, I greatly appreciate a cribbage night as much as the next person. Ben take us home here.
[01:02:20] Ben Treat: I feel like two things that have really just been clear throughout our conversation here. One thing is that libraries are a way that communities express pride in themselves and their own community and love for one another in the community.
[01:02:33] It’s a way that when you see a library that’s doing fabulous work and doing phenomenal things, like all of the things that you’ve heard described, that’s because there’s a community that has pride in itself and where people are coming together because they care for one another and libraries help foster that care and make it grow.
[01:02:51] That’s one thing that just is really clear, I think, from all the things that we’ve heard about. And the other thing is that, I mean, people think librarians sit and read books all day and if we had our druthers, if somebody was like, $5 million, just go sit someplace. Like a lot of us would read, I suppose.
[01:03:10] We do love books, but really what I’m hearing us all say, and what I feel about myself and the folks that I work with here is that we’re network thinkers. We’re always thinking about the larger group that we can be cooperating with. The larger group of librarians, the larger group of agencies, Jen’s on every committee that is anywhere near Wyndham, right?
[01:03:33] And I think that’s true for every library director in the state is that everybody wants you on board because that’s how librarians think is in networks and in partnership. And the other thing that you may not know about librarians, but we all love spreadsheets. We all love to think more efficient.
[01:03:48] We’re always trying to figure out how to make things more efficient and more organized. And so like I thought of that when Lori was speaking. She said, we’re a way that you can take your tax dollars and get what you want in the most efficient way possible. We’re that community hub that enables people to share ideas with each other and then share project and labor with one another, and it’s work that we love.
[01:04:09] I just love working with librarians. I mean, I am a librarian, but I love working with librarians ’cause it’s just a great group of people to work with who we’re all really network minded and community minded.
[01:04:20] Eric Miller: Also, a wonderful place to finish out here. Thank you all so much for taking the time to come here in this digital space and have this conversation and wax poetic about our libraries.
[01:04:36] If you enjoyed this episode and the previous discussions we’ve had on this podcast, please consider donating to the Maine Policy Review by visiting the journal’s website linked in the description. Our team includes Barbara Harrity and Joyce Rumery, co-editors of Maine Policy Review, and Jonathan Rubin, director of the Policy Center.
[01:04:53] Special thanks to professional writing consultant Kathryn Swacha, technical writer Nicole LeBlanc and podcast producer, editor and writer Jason Heim. Our podcast music is composed by Nathanael Batson. Visit MCS library.org to learn about Margaret Chase Smith, the library in our work in public policy and education.
[01:05:13] Find episode materials, the full transcript and resources in the description of this episode, and on the Maine Policy Matters website. Share your topic ideas via the form on our website, and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. You can find all of our episodes wherever you find your podcast, and thank you for listening.