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A Library Can Help Remove Bias and Prejudice in the Community

 Human library as a concept for your makerspace? Here are some information about this kind of library and what can be achieved by organizing something like it.

We are not Alone In This Advocacy

The Human Library Project is actually a world-wide advocacy made up of various organizations. So, check out what has been done and what the future holds for this project at www.humanlibrary.org.

What is a Human Library

It is a safe space for interesting characters and those interested in them to learn and interact. Simply put, readers read a person rather than a book. Thus, a reader initiates the question and answer session under the watchful eye of a marshall, who monitors the interaction to ensure the human book’s safety and security.

What is the Goal of a Human Library?

It transforms a book library into a safe place for healthy discussion about controversial topics with the ultimate goal of unjudging someone. Readers can read more than one book per session, depending on the availability of marshalls and organizers.

Who Qualifies as a Human Book?

A person who has a unique experience in a particularly controversial scenario can quality. Then, the organizers can contact this person for his consent to join. For example, someone who is a victim of unfair judgment, who might have been misunderstood by society, and who wants to express feelings can qualify as a book.

How to plan for a Human Library?

Come up with project description/rationale. Consider the followingTarget audience? The invited readers need to be interested in what the human book has to say.

Learning outcome? The learning or lessons need to translate into related projects in the future. For example, after reading a human rights activist, the reader creates artworks about the said project in a related activity. Therefore, the lesson has an output.

Budget? Source of funds? Possible sponsors can be bookshops, novelty items, food vendors, non-government organizations, individuals, philantropists, etc.

Project flow? Chronological order is important for logistics.

Collaborating agencies? These can be sponsors or organizers.

Limitations? How ‘free’ is free speech? Should some topics really and truly be taboo? But, at what point should a marshall stop the “reading” because of the potentially volatile interaction that could occur due to the questions asked or reactions of the human book and reader to each other.

Should there be pre-determined “chapters” that the human book can talk about? If there are, then these chapters delimit the scope of what the human book can talk about.

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