#humanlibraries

[bridgingcommunities]

Interested in joining the discussing between the Visegrad and Western Balkan countries? Watch our first online discussion that took place in November 2022. 

[pesmfyp-blog]

Review on the concept of Human Libraries

I really love the idea of Human Libraries of how they transform human being into living books for others to ‘read’. There’s a saying that all women are a book, each have different stories. In my perspective, all human beings ARE like books, not just women. Everybody has its own life stories, it’d be really awesome if they could share their experiences and knowledge and what-so-ever about his/her own life/stereotype. It would be super amazing that we can choose to know and understand more about other group/type of people in respect of their career, expertise, interest, value, stereotyped group, which we are interested in but is totally different from us. It’s simple. I mean it is always more convincing if you obtain information from the first-hand instead of second. Therefore the concept of a walking live book is really awesome because it could actually answer whatever questions you have about this person or people within his/her circles. And it’s not like you simply find the answers of questions within you but in fact you get to have a in-depth discussion with that one person, enact a higher level of interaction with another individual that you might not be able or you might not dare to talk to or you might not be able to get in touch with in another corner of the society. Another thing is that, it is a very good example of ‘audience-oriented’ since all the questions being asked and the topics of discussions are being raised and controlled by the audience him or herself. they can ask whatever is in their mind and whatever they want to know about this person in front of them which representing a specific stereotyped groups in the society. The audience can dig out the best information of their own interest. In other words, they can maximize their benefit from it most as compare to other form of exhibit.

However, to be honest, Human Library is in fact just a grand marketing of an interactive talk with all the speakers sharing their life experiences. The only difference would be it allows an one-on-one dialogue just between the audience and the storyteller, instead of competing with other audience by raising hands to ask questions. Audiences could then ask as much questions as they want as long as within the time limit, 45 minutes to 2 hours. Moreover, they could also ask questions they are too shy or might feel embarrass to ask in front of all other audiences. By adopting an one-on-one dialogue actually create an environment where the audience feels comfortable and safe to talk about whatever is in his or her mind. The intimacy and privacy offer them confidence on exploring more. This is actually the best environment/form of exhibit that allows and actually encourages audiences to utilize their own experiences based on their personal interests and benefits.