President Donald Trump has threatened many things this year, but I never expected him to endanger my essays.

If an executive order Trump issued earlier this year takes effect, the main source of funds for MelCat, Michigan’s interlibrary loan program, will disappear, and with it, MelCat at Mossey Library. Hillsdale students will not be able to request essential books for research papers from other libraries.

Additionally, a Michigan budget bill approved by the state House in August does not include a directive to earmark these federal funds for MelCat, according to an announcement by the Michigan Library Association. Even if the federal funds survive, MelCat could be cut by our own state representatives and be gone by September 2026, when the funds expire.

As the deadline to finalize a state budget approaches on Oct. 1, Michigan state legislators should replace all federal library funding with state funds and ensure Hillsdale students are not limited by the size of our library, only the size of our imaginations.

Trump issued an executive order March 14 eliminating the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the agency which distributes funds for state library programs. A federal judge soon put the executive order under a preliminary injunction, reversing the directive until the court decides whether or not to permanently block the order. Until then, the future of MelCat is uncertain.

Reducing the size of the federal government and reducing inefficiencies is great. But taking away funding for a service essential to Hillsdale students and faculty? Not so great.

Through MelCat, anyone with a library card can check out a book from over 400 participating Michigan libraries. Michigan received $4.8 million from IMLS in 2024 and put 75–80% of those funds toward MelCat and the state’s digital library, MeL, with the rest of the money going to local libraries.

At Hillsdale, MelCat grants students access to physical copies of books Mossey Library might not have. Although we are blessed with an abundance of excellent books, we still lack the physical space at Mossey Library to shelve tomes like “On the Heart,” an influential book on cardiology by ancient Greek doctor Hippocrates.

As a result, Hillsdale College loves MelCat. Since 2023, the latest year of complete data, Hillsdale borrowed 8,219 books through MelCat, according to Mossey librarians. Additionally, Hillsdale contributes almost twice this amount of books to the MelCat system — we have loaned 15,359 books since 2023.

Library Director Maurine McCourry said these numbers demonstrate how essential MelCat is to Mossey Library.

“I’ve been here 25 years now, and so I was here when we came on MelCat,” McCourry said. “And from the very beginning, it has been extremely popular here. Everybody uses MelCat. Without it, we would have a hard time functioning.”

In the short term, Trump’s executive order jeopardizes the existence of MelCat at Hillsdale. However, in the long run, Michigan has a chance to make this a situation that improves the MelCat system overall rather than damages it.

With the risk of losing federal funds for MelCat, state representatives should appropriate state funds for the service in the upcoming budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. Because MelCat is a state-run, local program, funding should come from Michigan, not from the federal government.

Brenna Wade, public services librarian at Mossey Library, said local services like MelCat should be funded by more local governments to reduce dependence on politics in Washington.

“Something like MelCat, which is a state resource, should be provided by the state,” Wade said. “Especially now that federal money is uncertain. But if the state could give the same amount of funding, it makes sense for that to be a state resource, because it provides the state a service.”

Ideally, funds for MelCat should be appropriated this week in the upcoming budget bill instead of waiting for MelCat to shut down, and then distributing funds. According to Wade, if MelCat is shut down, it will be much harder to start it back up again.

“If you dismantle it, it’ll be almost impossible to get it back up and running again,” Wade said. “It’s very complicated, and changing access to databases is a lot easier to turn off and on, than it is to turn off and on the whole infrastructure that goes into MelCat.”

Thankfully, the state librarians are currently pushing for these funds in congress.

Wade said she has heard from meetings with the state librarian that policymakers are interested in completely funding MelCat if the federal funds fall through.

“They are really committed to keeping MelCat in some form,” Wade said. “They see MelCat as being the biggest value to the state.”

Getting state funding for this program will not be easy. Michigan spent more than $13.5 million on public library support funds in 2024, so adding another roughly $5 million to this budget would increase it by more than 35%. This might necessitate increased state taxes or reduced funds for other programs. Legislatures should find creative funding solutions, such as creating a MelCat or library-themed license plate and have proceeds contribute to MelCat.

MelCat is worth the budget crunch. Every dollar spent towards MelCat is a dollar spent for academic, intellectual, and creative freedom for people across the state of Michigan.

Eleanor DeGoffau is a senior studying physics.