THE HOTTEST PLACE IN HELL: The Crisis of Neutrality in Contemporary Librarianship

Abstract

Yet the Swiss government, in tandem with the Swiss banking system, conspired to smuggle millions of Deutschmarks of stolen Jewish money, in the form of gold bouillon, out of Nazi Germany during the height of the Holocaust.4 All the while, Switzerland maintained an official political neutrality that enabled it to preserve the integrity of its borders throughout and escape war crimes prosecution later on. By offering neutral responses in the increasingly partisan cultural atmosphere, the librarian denies him or herself the opportunity to definitively reverse the tide of negative educational trends which have seen the diminishment of the influence of the library in American society. Neutral responses to the vital issues of gay marriage, African-American reparations, and affirmative action, continually jeopardize the library's relevance in contemporary society.