Have you ever checked out a book that made you change the way you look at the world? Well, on Friday, October 6, the Kokomo-Howard County Public Library hopes you do just that when it hosts the Human Library.
The Human Library is much like a regular library ꟷexcept the books are volunteers from all walks of life who have experienced discrimination based on race, religion, sexual preference, class, gender identity, sex, age, lifestyle choices, disability, and other aspects of their life.
During the October First Friday, from 5 to 8 p.m. at KHCPL Main, you’ll find a board listing all the books available for checkout. Titles include “Catholic Convert to Judaism,” “Trans Male College Student,” “Foster Child to Homeless Woman,” “From Child Mexican Immigrant to Small Business Owner,” and “Mother of Two Autistic Children.” You select the book you want to read. Then you sit down and talk.
“Just as we have rules about materials that we loan out, we’ll have rules for these books,” said Lisa Fipps, Director of Marketing. “The reader should return the book in the same mental and physical condition in which it was borrowed is a primary rule. In other words, you don’t check out a book to try to change it, judge it, or berate it. We’ll have staff stationed around the books to ensure that doesn’t happen, and the books will be trained to walk away if that happens. In essence, borrowing is based on mutual respect. This is a time to read the book to grow in understanding of what it’s like, for example, to leave the religion you were born into, raised in, for another religion. It’s not the time to proselytize.”
The Human Library started in Denmark, where it’s called “Menneskebiblioteket,” in 2000 at the Roskilde Festival. The organizer started it in response to a person being attacked for being different. It was open eight hours a day for four days straight and featured more than 50 books. The selection provided readers the ability ample to challenge their stereotypes. To date, the Human Library has been presented in more than 70 countries around the world.
