During the Human Library event, human books from the SU community representing a wide range of cultural backgrounds, areas of expertise and life experiences will share their stories in conversation with individual “readers.
The Syracuse University Libraries will host the fourth annual Human Library event on Wednesday, April 5, from noon to 4 p.m. in Bird Library, in partnership with the Library and Information Science Student Association at the School of Information Studies, the Office of Learning Communities and the Office of Multicultural Affairs.
During this event, human books from the SU community representing a wide range of cultural backgrounds, areas of expertise and life experiences will share their stories in conversation with individual “readers.” The event is intended to encourage diversity and challenge stereotypes and prejudices.
Human books—SU faculty, staff and students from a variety of campus departments and programs—will engage in one-on-one or small group conversations for 20 minutes at a time. Examples of human books include individuals from Iran, Kazakhstan, Italy and China; a member of the Onondaga Nation; and a first generation Portuguese-American. Other books will discuss topics such mental illness, physical disabilities and navigating one’s personal identity in light of socio-political events.
The event is open to the campus community and no preregistration is required. However, participants can reserve a book in advance for a specific time, if desired, by completing the form on this page: http://researchguides.library.syr.edu/humanlibrary/reserve.
SU’s event is part of a regional Human Library program taking place during April, the month in which National Library Week is celebrated, supported by the Central NY Library Resources Council. The first Human Library program was held in 2000 in Copenhagen, Denmark (see http://www.humanlibrary.org). Since then, similar events have been organized in libraries, schools and other institutions around the world.
For more information, see http://researchguides.library.syr.edu/humanlibrary.
