Nonpartisanship in Library Social Media (Jonathan Castella's Blog Post #6)

 

When a library develops a social media policy, many aspects need to be considered to align with best practices. Many of our weekly readings this week go into detail about what the policies should contain in order to meet best practices. However, there were a few aspects not directly touched on that I think should be highlighted in regard to a library's social media policy. One very important aspect is for a library's social media page to be completely nonpartisan. A library should never align itself with any political affiliation. But why? What exactly does this mean, and what should it include? And perhaps just as important, what does it not include? As for why, it is largely due to two factors. One, political polarization, especially now, is a large issue. Politics can be an incredibly divisive topic, and libraries should avoid taking a side so as not to make patrons and the public uncomfortable. Two, it is simply unethical. Public libraries are government entities, and government entities must remain nonpartisan, and this should obviously extend to a library's social media. This should include a library not taking a political stance in any form of election from local to federal levels. This does not mean a library should not be able to promote material about politics; the promotion just needs to be nonpartisan and equal on both ends of the political spectrum. This should not include support of certain social issues that have been politicized. What exactly this means and what should and should not be included goes beyond the scope of this blog post. However, one example would be the promotion of LGBTIQ+ content and material. The support of these groups is, or at least should not be, a partisan issue. A library promoting an LGBTIQ+ event or display on their social media would, or at least should, be perfectly fine. As to the greater scope of what this means and how this should be done, once again, it goes beyond the scope of this post.