Unpacking Neutrality at the Public Library

Neutrality characterizes the purpose and mission of many community foundations, which aim to facilitate philanthropic dreams and a full range of charitable community work.

We might think of libraries as an analogous institution to community foundations, with a broad remit to engage a diverse public. Neutrality is a critical and current debate within libraries.

In this debate, we hear questions about when neutrality is really meaningful and inclusive, and when it simply becomes an empty word that signals an institution that defaults to dominant interests. Some argue that there are contexts in which neutrality is desirable, and others counter that neutrality is an ideal that is not even achievable by humans.

Writing after the tumultuous McCarthy era, librarian David Berninghausen strongly advocated for libraries to serve an impartial role, so that they could foster open-minded democratic discourse, a much needed purpose for libraries. Berninghausen saw intellectual freedom and social advocacy as incompatible purposes.1

For Amelia Gibson and her co-authors, writing in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement, impartiality is a myth. Neutrality is what systems ask us of us. They write:2

Interestingly, despite their different stances, Berninghausen and Gibson agree that libraries should stake out an explicit purpose, whether for intellectual freedom or social justice. Neither conceptualize the library as simply an institution that collects and distributes resources for public benefit. Each describes what benefit means.

Berninghausen does not see an infinitely neutral role for the library. Neutrality is a means to an ends. His library is for freedom of thought and speech, and public discourse as a pathway to a better society. If no one was using the neutral space created by the library to exercise their intellectual freedom, presumably it would have failed to achieve its purpose.

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In a more recent defense of neutrality, "Neutrality is a fiction--but an indispensable one," Kwame Anthony Appiah argues that even if neutrality isn't ever fully achievable by humans it is important that we strive to behave as if we were neutral in certain public-facing roles and institutions. In the field of science, it can provide a set of rules of the game that produce better science, but in a public library or an educational institution "there’s another objective here: assuring members of an eclectic community that all will be treated with respect." Everyone may understand that when a librarian leaves the building they may head off to volunteer for a political party or protest a new development, but at work, "Performing fairness can make us fairer.'4

It's not dishonest to act neutrally when one is doing so for the pursuit of a greater purpose, whether its intellectual freedom or achieving greater equity in access to knowledge: "Our public roles aren’t a ruse when our commitment to these roles is real." Appiah does not say whether neutrality in an institution like a public library means reflecting the dominant norms of the day; instead, he writes more about the relational obligations to people who hold different opinions from you to ensure they "shouldn’t feel disfavored because of what or who they are." He concludes, "as individuals, we’re entitled to fight for what we believe in. But in a pluralistic society, the ideal of neutrality helps keep the fighting fair."5

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  For Intellectual Freedom

  In the wake of anti-communist tyranny, Berninghausen argued library neutrality was needed to protect intellectual freedom.
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  For Social Advocacy

  In the midst of greater public discourse about racial inequality and systemic violence, Gibson et al. argued that libraries need to actively work towards racial equity.
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  Performing Fairness

  Kwame Anthony Appiah argues that the pursuit of neutrality, however unachievable, can make a space like the library more inviting of diverse users and intellectual exchange.

Experiences & Observations

What are your thoughts about what neutrality is and isn't?

Reactions & Impressions

Document some of your current thoughts and feelings about the relationship between philanthropic purpose and neutrality, especially in the context of a foundation you are close to.

Questions & Hunches to test

Looking at areas of a foundation you are close to, where there is the greatest and least concern around neutrality, try applying the test of whether anyone might feel disfavoured because of who and what they are.