National Library Week is April 6-12, 2025 — this is a time for communities to celebrate all public libraries and librarians across the country do to bring people together, spark creativity, and support lifelong learning.

Public libraries do so much for communities throughout the state of Iowa– they serve not only as a source of information and recreation for people who live here, but a place where they can access the Internet if they’re unable to afford it at home. They help preserve the history of our local communities and they assist people in getting the tax forms they need to file their taxes this time of year. They provide a place for people to gather with their neighbors–to learn new skills or information and make connections with others in their communities. They provide a place for our youngest readers to learn and to get socialization with other children through attending story time and other programs. They help kids to keep reading in the summer to fight summer learning loss. Libraries also serve the needs of homeschooling families by helping them find books on all of the topics that they need to cover during the school year. All of these are certainly true of our Marshalltown Public Library.

This year, to celebrate National Library Week, I encourage you to go and check out all that our library has to offer. Visit the Marshalltown Public Library, get a library card if you don’t have one, and check out all of the opportunities that our library provides for learning, reading, and inspiration. Become a member of the Friends of the Marshalltown Public Library, which provides financial support to the library to purchase more materials for community members to check out and provide more educational programming for all ages.

One thing that is vital to do this year during National Library Week is to contact your elected officials, from the local city council to your state and federal representatives to let them know the impact that the library has had on your life. This is especially important this year as funding for libraries is at risk.

On March 14, President Trump signed an executive order that called to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and six other federal agencies. The IMLS provides federal funding to the State Library of Iowa to provide services to libraries all across the state. One of the services funded through this program is Bridges (Libby), the state eBook and downloadable audiobook library, which is used heavily by the Marshalltown community. Last year, 18,654 eBooks and 13,704 downloadable audiobooks were checked out by our community. Another affected program is Iowa Shares, a twice weekly delivery service that allows the library to borrow books and movies from other libraries across the state–last year, the library borrowed 754 items from other libraries for our community members to use. If you care about these services and want them to continue, I encourage you to contact your representatives and encourage them to fund the IMLS Grants to States program and to tell them how the library has impacted your life.

Contact your federal representatives: Representative Randy Feenstra: 202-225-4426 or feenstra.house.gov/contact; Senator Joni Ernst: 202-224-3254 or ernst.senate.gov/contact and Senator Chuck Grassley: 202- 224-3744 or grassley.senate.gov/contact.

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Jeff Hutton is the president of the

Friends of the Marshalltown Public Library.