(WENY) -- President Donald Trump created the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in January in an effort to slash federal spending. On March 14th, President Trump signed an Executive Order calling on the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), among others, "to be eliminated and reduced to "the minimum presence and function required by law."

On March 20th, DOGE teams axed funding for the Institute, which was created in 1996 by Congress to oversee grants for museums and libraries across America. According to an article from CBS, in the past, the IMLS cited its "Grants to States" program as the largest source of federal funding support for library services in the U.S., with over $160 million allocated to the program annually. The grants are mapped out based on population and give state libraries complete oversight as to how funding is allocated to its local branches.

Sue McConnell, the children's librarian at the Southeast Steuben Co. Library in Corning said the funding cuts will impact every single library in the United States, including in Corning.

"The federal government gives the Institute money, they give each state money, the state library dwindles it down into local library systems, which then gives it to local libraries. It's definitely going to affect construction aids, services at the state level (which will affect services at the local level), E-Books will probably be affected, things that we rely on every day..." said McConnell.

To show the local government how important libraries are, McConnell helped organize a 'Read In.' It's happening on April 11th from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Southeast Steuben Co. Library. Kids can bring their own book or borrow one. McConnell said people can come for 15 minutes, or stay all three hours.

"It doesn't matter if you go to the Hornell Library, Steele (Memorial) Library, or the Penn Yan Library, show your local government how important your library is," said McConnell.

According to McConnell, $8.1M in NYS Library Aid will be cut from the federal government. NYS is also proposing to cut $1M from the state library [and] that is going to affect every single library in NYS, all 7,000 of them, [which] will also trickle down and have local effects.

"So many things that we rely on every day... All of my programs are donation-based. All of my money comes from private donations or the Friends of the Library Book Sale. All of our E-Books come from the state level. We purchase them locally but that funding comes from the state level. I don't have a dollar amount on how this will impact us personally, but it will affect us," said McConnell.

McConnell reiterated that the library doesn't just allow people to check out books. She said people can come to a library for things like job training, résumé building, and mock interviews.

According to the Southern Tier Library System's 2023 annual report, the Southeast Steuben County Library saw 137,790 on-site visitors that year. For 2024, the library saw 144,572 on-site visitors and the children's program attendance for 2024 was 23,162.