The Warren County-Vicksburg Public Library has been largely shielded from the impact of President Donald Trump’s recent executive order that effectively shuttered the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) earlier this week, library director David Scott said Friday.

“It affects us a little bit, so far,” Scott said of a termination letter received by states Wednesday and Thursday that informed many public libraries that grants approved last year are being terminated for being inconsistent with the Trump administration priorities. “We are fortunate, compared to many library systems in this state, in that we are far less reliant on federal money for the stuff we do.”

Scott said a large part of that freedom is the support the library receives from the Warren County Board of Supervisors.

“We are very nicely supported by our county,” he said. “We are very fortunate in that.”

Scott said a loss of IMLS funding will trickle down in a number of negative consequences for public libraries that rely more heavily on federal dollars.

“For example, a lot of the e-book and audio books around the state, patrons no longer have access, because it’s funded through IMLS grants and they just don’t have their own funding to pay for that stuff,” he said. “We are fortunate that we have a budget that allows us to pay for a lot of our own.”

But Scott said the potential for negative impacts from the announcement still exist for Vicksburg and Warren County.

“Where we have potentially been affected is grants that we receive through the Library Services and Technology Act,” Scott explained. “It’s a statutory grant passed by Congress. That money goes to the Library Commission, then they divvy it up to all the systems. Right now, that is at a standstill.”

Scott said one of the biggest consequences of the announcement comes in the form of grant money some libraries have already spent, with the executive order now bringing into question whether or not those funds will be reimbursed.

“That’s the thing,” he said. “We’ve gotten two (grants) that have been approved. One we’ve already gotten reimbursed for that. The other, we’ve been approved, but we haven’t gotten the stuff for that.”

Scott said the order means projects like the one already approved, but not yet begun, now have to be reevaluated. 

“Now we have to make the decision: Do we move forward, hoping the money comes back and we get reimbursed? Or, if not, can we eat it?’ And that’s a tricky one.”