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Dear Library Supporter,

Last month, the Institute of Museum and Library Services was shuttered. This federal agency has, since 1956, supported states’ library services, especially rural library services. In 2024, Montana’s $2.2 million IMLS grant helped sustain the Montana State Library, tribal college libraries, and university system libraries.

The future of this critical federal support is now endangered. These are needed funds, paying for many of Montana’s shared statewide library services. Libraries are places of learning - each citizens’ public place. Montanans need libraries, and more than ever, Montana libraries need our support.

To assist Montana’s libraries, in the face of this uncertainty, The Trust is supporting campaigns that embody libraries’ essential public value. We’re making progress on a capital campaign to purchase, install, and train in the use of twenty-eight Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in Montana’s libraries.

These public and tribal college libraries across Montana seeking an AED stretch from Hot Springs to Miles City, and from Darby to Havre. The full list of sites is available at this page on The Trust’s website.

Montana libraries serve their community’s entire population, but typically, a sizable percentage of those libraries serve are either young or old — Montana’s senior population being most at risk from cardiac disruption. During fiscal year 2023, the residents served by these twenty-eight project libraries’ accounted for over thirty-eight percent of Montana’s population, and tallied well in excess of one million library visits.

AEDs save lives. In the event of a cardiac arrest, every minute AED rescue is delayed cuts the victim’s chance of survival by ten percent. With our partners The American Red Cross and The American Heart Association, a generous grant from Missoula residents Patt and Terry Payne, and an anonymous matching grant, we’ve raised $20,000 towards this $60,000 project. Won’t you please help your neighbors?

Join us in supporting this project by mailing a check to the Trust or securely donate online by clicking the button below. The Trust for Montana Libraries is an IRS 501(c)3 organization, registered in Montana as a public benefit corporation.

Thank you for supporting Montana’s libraries.

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Sincerely,

Honore Bray Kris Goss Bruce Newell Kelly Reisig John Rogers Jennie Stapp Heather Tweet

Board of Directors
The Trust for Montana Libraries

P.S. We’ve been busy. With your support, The Trust has recently:

  • Granted funds to the Montana Library Association, to assist them with outreach and education efforts.

  • Supported the public showing of PBS Independent Lens film Free for All: The Public Library.

  • Supported the Montana Library Association annual conference showing the film The Librarians and hosting a visit with the director and profiled librarian.

  • We continue to work with the Red Cross of Montana to get AEDs, Automated External Defibrillators, in 28 public and tribal college libraries that lack and want one.

  • Engaged in a listening campaign to better understand what libraries need to better serve more Montanans, and what The Trust can do to help.

  • Improved the Trust’s board’s ability to work more efficiently, for Montanans and Montana’s libraries.