Neutrality as a Service: Libraries in the Attention Economy

This talk situates library neutrality within some of the dynamics of broader information culture in four parts: First, we introduce the concept of the attention economy and present some evidence for the interplay between information abundance and attention scarcity. Second, we examine how the attention economy shapes our ability to understand the world. To do this, we'll introduce the idea of algorithmic epistemology and how it reframes our relationship to data, information, knowledge, and wisdom—four goods with which, as epistemic institutions, libraries are inextricably entwined. Third, we'll address three epistemic public interests that libraries provide—intellectual freedom, intellectual privacy, and epistemic commons—and demonstrate how they are undermined by the attention economy. Finally, I’ll propose that neutrality is itself a service that libraries deliver within the context of the attention economy through the provision of “third place” spaces and refuge for civic solitude. Invited theme talk presented for the Association of Library Professionals (ALP) 2025 Summit, August 8, 2025.