This document discusses the Human Library, an event where "human books" are available to be "checked out" for conversations about their life experiences related to topics like discrimination, mental illness, or physical disability. The goal is to address prejudice through personal interactions. At the University of Alberta Augustana Campus, the Human Library is used in class assignments to foster empathy and understanding. Students reflect on conversations with human books and relate them to scholarly research on the topics. The Human Library benefits both readers and human books by increasing understanding and building community.

1. THE HUMAN LIBRARY AS A MEANS OF
ADDRESSING PREJUDICE AND INTOLERANCE
Nancy Goebel
Head Librarian
nancy.goebel@ualberta.ca
Yvonne Becker
Associate Professor, Women’s Studies & Physical Education
yvonne.becker@ualberta.ca
Kara Blizzard
Public Services Librarian
kara.blizzard@ualberta.ca
Augustana Campus, University of Alberta
LILAC
April 10, 2017
Creative Commons image: Kua, Benson. Accessed June 10, 2014. aug.ualberta.ca/HLconversation

2. WHAT IS A HUMAN LIBRARY?
People called
readers who
want to learn
about a
specific topic
“Check out”
people called
human books
for an hour of
conversation
To learn
first-hand
about the
human books’
life experiences
WHO? WHAT? WHY?

3. WHO ARE THE HUMAN BOOKS AND READERS?
 Students
 Staff
 Faculty
 Community
members

4. WHAT DO HUMAN BOOKS TALK ABOUT?
 Facing prejudice and discrimination
 Being LGBTQI*
 Being a member of a visible minority
 Coping with mental illness
 Struggling with addiction
 Recovering from abuse
 Surviving cancer
 Living with physical and cognitive challenges

5. HOW DO WE REACH OUT TO HUMAN BOOKS?
Networking
Public domain image: geralt. Retrieved July 6, 2016. https://pixabay.com/en/play-stone-network-networked-1237457/

6. HOW DO WE INCORPORATE INFO LIT?
 Facilitate informal connections
 Provide guidelines for citing human books
 Encourage further reading on the topics
 Collaborate with faculty

7. HOW DO YOU CITE A HUMAN BOOK?

8. HOW DO WE ENCOURAGE FURTHER READING?

9. COLLABORATING WITH FACULTY

10. WOMEN’S STUDIES ASSIGNMENT: PART 1

11. WOMEN’S STUDIES ASSIGNMENT: PART 1

12. WOMEN’S STUDIES ASSIGNMENT: PART 1
Initial reflection
Consider questions such as:
 What was the life experience of the human book?
 In what ways was “difference” created in the life of
the human book?
 How did that difference affect their life?
 Did the human book note experiences of prejudice or
discrimination in their life?
 What does the future hold for the human book?

13. WOMEN’S STUDIES ASSIGNMENT: PART 2
3 scholarly articles
related to
human book topic
Annotated bibliography
Annotated
bibliography
Public domain image: OpenClipartVectors. Retrieved May 17, 2016. https://pixabay.com/en/manuscript-newspaper-article-paper-149606/

14. WOMEN’S STUDIES ASSIGNMENT: PART 3
Reflection
Public domain image: US Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved July 6, 2016. http://www.publicdomainfiles.com/show_file.php?id=14002608614218

15. STUDENTS’ REFLECTIONS
 “By reading my Human Book and finding
literature related to LGBTQ family structures,
I’ve gained a great amount of respect for
parents of LGBTQ children, and am all the more
motivated to educate and normalize my family
and friends about the acceptance of breaking
gender norms in hopes to create a healthier
generation of transgender individuals.”

16. STUDENTS’ REFLECTIONS
 “The human library gave me a better, more
empathetic approach to information as it related to
gender issues. In contrast to this, the scholarly articles
do offer a more scientific approach, and as such
afford the reader more quantifiable results. It seems
useful then to consider both ways of accessing
information in the social sciences, as both ways
offer their own benefits to the study of gender
issues.”

17. STUDENTS’ REFLECTIONS
 “[Human book]’s presence reminded me that she was
a real person going through real struggles rather than
simply a book that I could pull off a shelf and return.
In this way her voice was heard and she was able to
speak… Overall, both components of this assignment
assisted in giving me a better holistic understanding
of the topic of LGBT community members and the
difficulties they may face privately and publically…”

18. IMPACT OF THE HUMAN LIBRARY ON
READERS AND HUMAN BOOKS
I am a human book
because...
“poster project”
I value the human
library because...
I read a human
book because…

19. POSTER PROJECT: UNCOVERING VALUE

20. POSTER PROJECT: UNCOVERING VALUE

21. POSTER PROJECT: UNCOVERING VALUE

22. POSTER PROJECT CODING
Common values:
 Human books’ lived experiences (51%)
 Human books’ knowledge (26%)
 Increasing empathy (19%)
 Unique experience of the human library (17%)
 Connecting with others, building community (11%)

23. HUMAN BOOKS BENEFIT, TOO
https://twitter.com/marnipanas/status/696870432167727104 https://twitter.com/marnipanas/status/696915237119758336

24. THE REACH OF THE AUGUSTANA HUMAN LIBRARY
http://www.camrosecanadian.com/2016/02/10/augustana-hosts-intersex-book
http://globalnews.ca/news/83208/librarys-walking-talking-books-offer-lives-worth-borrowing/
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/talking-books-that-actually-talk-back/article17940213/

25. RESEARCH: NEXT STEPS

26. QUESTIONS?
Nancy Goebel
Head Librarian
nancy.goebel@ualberta.ca
Yvonne Becker
Associate Professor, Women’s Studies & Physical Education
yvonne.becker@ualberta.ca
Kara Blizzard
Public Services Librarian
kara.blizzard@ualberta.ca
Augustana Campus, University of Alberta
National Diversity in Libraries Conference
June 10, 2016
aug.ualberta.ca/humanlibrary
LILAC
April 10, 2017