The Human Library

07/06/2012

Event report

The School hosted the city’s first ever ‘Human Library’ where readers could rent out and ‘read’ people instead of books. The event is was one of many ‘Human Library’ events around the world. The event was held on Saturday 26 May 2012, which took place at the Cardiff Story, Cardiff’s city museum

In the first event the participants represented a diverse range of interests and backgrounds: E.g. representation from the Muslim community, the Roma community and the gay community as well as those with disabilities.

A Living Book is a person, that has chosen to be a public representative of a certain group. An example of how people can be, if only minds are open long enough to find out, whom and what they really are.

One of the great features of the Human Library and taking out a book is that there is no such thing as a stupid question. Books have been prepared and made themselves available, in order for others to be able to dig deep and find out what they always wanted to know about the book title. Otherwise the Living Librarians are at hand to guide people through the process of identifying their own "worst" stereotypes.

The event was very popular with the general public, with a waiting list for most of the books. The books themselves, who volunteered and gave their time to this project, enjoyed the experience too.

Additional articles

Welcome to the ‘Human Library’
Cardiff Story museum hosts “human library”