In recent years, as social and political issues have become increasingly fraught and there has been more and more division and conflict both in our society and on the campuses that academic libraries serve, there has been increasing controversy over the issue of library neutrality. One on side are those who believe the library is (or should be) “never neutral,” and who argue that the library profession’s values necessitate taking a stand on social issues; on the other side are those who believe that neutrality on political and social issues is, itself, an essential library value that preserves our ability to serve all patrons equally in a pluralistic society.

Caught between are people (like me, for example) who worry that the concept of “neutrality” has become a political football, too often oversimplified and wielded to score points against ideological opponents, and too rarely considered and applied in a careful and critical way. Left behind in the rubble of this cultural conflict are the patrons who are directly impacted by the library’s choices and policies regarding neutrality.

The fact is that there are some significant and meaningful ways in which the library not only is, but absolutely must remain neutral. For example, libraries generally cannot take an organizational position on matters of party politics, by endorsing candidates for office or ballot initiatives. On such issues the library is and must remain neutral. On the other hand, libraries are not at all neutral on social issues like literacy (of which we stand in favor), the freedom to read (ditto), and providing equal access to everyone in the communities we serve. From a slightly different angle, there are also some who argue that libraries are “never neutral” in light of their organizational connections to “structures of oppression” – an interesting position, and one that itself is (or should be) subject to critical examination and analysis and on which there will exist a variety of viewpoints among librarians. 

So instead of the misleadingly simple and binary question “Is the library neutral?”, I would like to propose a more complex and reality-based question: “In what ways should my library be neutral, and in what ways must it not be?”. 

The answers to this question will, of course, vary depending on what kind of library you work in – and the answers will often be complex, because (to take one example) a library that says “We take a neutral position regarding the political affiliations of our patrons” is taking a non-neutral position on the question “Should libraries treat patrons differently depending on their party affiliations?”. But the question of neutrality goes deeper than issues of institutional position. As a leader, you also need to work to determine answers to questions like:

• How much ideological diversity will we tolerate in my library or my area of stewardship? Will there be sanctions for the expression of particular viewpoints, and if so, how will we decide which ones will be sanctioned?
• How will we handle internal disagreement on social and political issues? When disagreement leads to interpersonal conflict, what principles will be applied to resolve or manage it?
• What kinds of political expression are allowed in the library building, and within the library organization? How will limitations on such expression (if any) be enforced?

Each of the questions above engages with the issue of “neutrality,” because none of them can be answered unless the library has a coherent organizational position on the degree to which its employees and patrons can speak their minds without fear of organizational sanction. In the current, extremely difficult social and political moment, a shared understanding of what those boundaries are is more important than ever in the libraries we lead.

Takeaways and Action Items

• It’s unhelpfully reductive to say either that the library is “neutral” or that it is “never neutral.” As a leader, you need to know (and help determine) the ways in which your library is and is not neutral.
• The ways in which your library is and is not neutral will be significantly shaped by the mission of the institution you serve.
• Ask yourself: Do our patrons and employees understand where the library has taken an institutional stance and where it has not? Do our employees have a clear understanding of what boundaries there are in our library on the expression of political/social views – and on responding to others’ expression of their views?