Thread by @amlibraries

Are libraries neutral spaces? Have they ever been? You're not going to want to miss the debate at the #alamw18 President's Program. Follow along with us!

Affirmative speakers (for neutrality): @jaslar, @twiteck. Con speakers (against neutrality): @mchris4duke, @rdlankes. Commentators will be @edrabinski, @ejmknox, @klmccook, @kelwat103. ALA President @jamesneal will moderate. #alamw18

"Neutrality does not mean that librarians don't have values. We do. It doesn't mean that institutions don't exist to advance certain goals." @jaslar, #alamw18

"We do not deny access to library services and resources. We do not see to silence people on the basis of their backgrounds or beliefs. We do set limits on behavior." @jaslar #alamw18

"Librarians don't get to decide whether you are significantly woke to deserve resources." @jaslar #alamw18

"If speech is conflated with action, if speech is defined as harm, anyone can demand that someone else shut up. The same arguments used to challenge privilege will also be used to defend it." @jaslar #alamw18

"Neutrality does not mean that you can't advocate for positions based on the evidence. It just means you don't have the exclusive right to do so." @jaslar #alamw18

"Neutrality is about the refusal to deny people access to a shared resource just because we don't like the way they think. That doesn't mean that anyone is immune from criticism." @jaslar #alamw18

"Neutrality, by definition, is not taking sides. ... I didn't plan to get into a debate about the definition of neutrality. I will simply say false equivalency is false." @mchris4duke #alamw18

"The very notion that shared, consolidated community resources ought to exist is not a neutral proposition." The public library is an example of socialism. @mchris4duke #alamw18

"Decisions like how much funding a library gets, who has access to a library, and where the library is located are not neutral decisions." @mchris4duke #alamw18

"We are over 85% white as a profession. ... I submit to you that a profession does not become so disproportionately white by chance." @mchris4duke #alamw18

"The idea that our collections should be inclusive of many points of view, even those points that members of our community find repellent, is not a neutral idea." @mchris4duke #alamw18

"You can't have and not have the book at the same time. None of us, I don't think, work in Schrödinger's library." @mchris4duke #alamw18

"Allowing those who deny the humanity and the basic dignity of others who co-opt the legitimacy of our libraries and our profession is not a neutral choice." @mchris4duke #alamw18

Should libraries strive to be neutral? "The short answer is yes. The long answer, well, is complicated." @twiteck #alamw18

"Neutrality is a process to which libraries and librarians must actively commit, a goal that must be continually sought, an aspiration that must be regularly renewed. ... There is nothing, in my mind, dispassionate about neutrality." @twiteck #alamw18

"Laura Saunders suggests our aspiration to neutrality must be coupled with an attempt to achieve objectivity in our practice." @twiteck #alamw18

How do we stay neutral? @twiteck suggests focusing on three things: equal access to materials, equal access to meeting spaces, equal access to services. #alamw18

"Our role as librarians should be to allow users to assess and explore all ideas without judgment, and to balance it with the understanding of the difference of opinions and resisting censorship." @twiteck #alamw18

"Let me emphasize that strong polices will be the most effective guide for the implementation of open access." @twiteck #alamw18

"Community passions may hinder libraries' ability to implement policy... but there are examples of good policies that have been able to withstand the challenges." @twiteck #alamw18

"I'm not suggesting that we do not have social goals. I don't think we should ever be indifferent to injustice. ... I think an active, engaged, continually reaffirmed neutrality is the first rung on the ladder to advocacy." @twiteck #alamw18

"I want to remind you that you became librarians to make a difference, to uphold core values... you are not neutral clerks in a machine." @rdlankes #alamw18

"The myth of neutrality prevents an engaged professional conversation with our diverse communities to define the aspirations of those communities." @rdlankes #alamw18

"Equity is not neutrality. If you differentiate or prioritize service in any way to those you serve, you are not neutral." @rdlankes #alamw18

"I've seen public libraries implement content filters to reduce police surveillance and thereby improve access and privacy. ... I have seen libraries organize brutal conversations on racism... to directly counter hateful ideas. That is not neutral." @rdlankes #alamw18

"What we can do as professionals is acknowledge the truth of bias. Not the flaw of bias, for no one's life should ever be seen as a flaw." @rdlankes #alamw18

"Some equate rejecting neutrality as equivalent of an embrace of partisan politics and ideology. A false equivalency at best." @rdlankes #alamw18

"Libraries are not buildings or collections or policies, but communities seeking the most fundamental human quest: meaning." @rdlankes #alamw18

"Libraries are spaces where we encounter real things. ... No two books can occupy the same space at the same time. ... Libraries are material, just as library workers and patrons are. We are real, we exist, and we matter." @edrabinski #alamw18

"We have to make decisions about resources. .. We buy one book to the exclusion of probably thousands of others." @edrabinski #alamw18

"I don't think neutral is a thing that can exist. We are always siding with someone or something or some idea, and against others." @edrabinski #alamw18

"A critical stance against neutrality as an absolute value is not the same thing as asking librarians to simply say no to bad things." @edrabinski #alamw18

"The principle of neutraliy is one that asks me to leave my political opinions somewhere other than the reference desk, but the truth is I don't even think of my opinions as political." @edrabinski #alamw18

"In focusing a conversation on an idealized notion of neutrality that none of us encounter in our real lives, I think we offer an alibi to those who have the power to define their views as normal or neutral." @edrabinski #alamw18

"I agreed with everything, actually. Because I think this is really about a definition for neutrality." @ejmknox #alamw18

"I do have prepared remarks, and they're really about thinking about neutrality as taking a stand." @ejmknox #alamw18

"There are probably many people out there who see #BlackLivesMatter as hate group. So does not supporting it make the library neutral? No. Because making a decision is never neutral." @ejmknox #alamw18

"A so-called neutral choice is almost always a choice for the status quo. ... Neutrality is a form of fence-sitting, a form of silence." @ejmknox #alamw18

"This seems to be such a controversy in our field because we are trying to figure out what we mean by neutrality." @ejmknox #alamw18

"I always think that sometimes issues of class are as important to keeping people out of the library as other issues that we sometimes think divide us." @klmccook #alamw18

"The neutrality issue was just starting to emerge, and people didn't want communists in public libraries because they would make people question things." @klmccook #alamw18

. @klmccook handing out books to panelists, giving us insightful history on the Library Services Act and IMLS. #alamw18

"We can't show them both sides if they don't come in." @klmccook #alamw18

"I believe in the right of intellectual freedom. I believe that there should never be a suppression of ideas." @kelwat103 #alamw18

"Neutrality gives the information professional the ability to take a non-stance on important issues and avoid accountability by abdicating any ethical responsibility. ... We can't be neutral on social and political issues that impact our customers." @kelwat103 #alamw18

"Can we do better? Yes. Should we do better? Yes. But neutrality is still a value worth striving for." @jaslar #alamw18

"Let's first address that libraries exist in many different legal contexts. ... Free speech and neutrality is not the same thing." @rdlankes #alamw18

"It's not that we don't take sides; it's that we take a side that we need a rich, involved civic conversation." @rdlankes #alamw18

"I think the main thing is that you let people know that their views count." @klmccook #alamw18

"Do we ever have at ALA [conferences] speakers that we might not consider progressive or liberal?" @klmccook #alamw18

"No social institution is neutral. Social institutions arise out of social context." @mchris4duke #alamw18

"When we talk about neutrality, we have to talk about power. ... Those questions are more critical for us to determine right now than some others." @edrabinski #alamw18

"I think it's important to remember that the loudest voices in a community are not always the ones that should always be listened to. Even in a very small community, I can assure you that there are LGBTQ folks, there are folks who are poor." @ejmknox #alamw18

"It's not like free speech or neutrality were activated for the first time when this right-wing group wanted to come in. ... Thinking about both history and materiality... here's the stuff [we're not] going to resource. @edrabinski #alamw18

"Always think about what the unintended consequences might be for taking particular policy stances." @ejmknox #alamw18

"What I'm thrilled about with this conversation is that, if the only thing that comes out of it, is that we realize... we cannot hide behind a 1938 Code of Ethics." @rdlankes #alamw18

"I think this is a very good time to stand up for things. There are people in every community who will stand behind you." @klmccook #alamw18

"That's what the courts have said that the mission of the public library is. We provide a neutral platform that we have to treat everybody the same." @jaslar #alamw18