Page 26 - BCALA Spring 2018

26 | BCALA NEWS | Volume 45, Issue 2
as defined. We might try to maintain objectivity and be neutral, but we instead find ourselves taking a side on social issues as well as political and otherwise.
In my opinion, libraries and librarians cannot be neutral because the social environment we live and work in and the patrons we serve are not.
Remarks from ALA Midwinter
2018 President’s Program:
Library Neutrality is a Myth
By Emily Knox, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
(Editor’s note: this is one of three essays submitted to BCALA News from Black LIS professionals
who participated in the 2018 ALA Midwinter President’s Program on library neutrality)
Should libraries support Black people? Sure. Well, what about “Black Lives Matter?”
Let’s think about this a bit...
What does it mean to support
the BLM movement? Maybe by inviting local leaders to speak? Or by having a display? Or some other programming?
Does not supporting the Black Lives Matter movement make the library neutral? No.
It means you have made a decision not to support the movement and making a decision is never neutral.
Is this decision not to support the movement less controversial? Does it protect your library? Perhaps but at what cost– and also, less controversial for whom?
If you have a Black History Month display in your library, then the library has already stated that, in fact, Black Lives Matter. Those historical figures being celebrated were the Black lives matter of their time.
Neutrality does not really exist. As Barnard College librarian Jenna Freedman once said, “you can be non-judgmental but not neutral because you are always making a choice.”
It may seem like these kinds of choices don’t matter but the so- called “neutral choice” is almost always the choice for the status quo. Even in the case that I gave–though it may seem like it is a choice to protect the library.
It can actually give cover to those who say that Black Lives Matter is a terrorist organization or that they are “uneasy” with the movement. They might say “Well, if it’s too controversial for the library then my uneasiness makes sense.” Does it make sense to support people who feel that way?
At the same time, you are also saying that those voices matter more than people who say that, you