Human Library @ the Highland Lakes Student Center

Participants from the
2013 Human Library event

Have you ever wondered what it is like to be deaf?  What it is like to live with a mental illness?  What it is like to have survived cancer three times?  At the OCC Highland Lakes Campus Diversity Fair on Thursday April 10, the HL Campus Diversity Committee and OCC Libraries will host our sixth Human Library event that allows “readers” to checkout volunteer “books” who represent multiple areas of diversity.  Human Books represent a cross section of society that have been stereotyped.  “Books” are not asked to be experts, but instead asked to be themselves and tell their story in response to questions asked by the “Reader”.  This exercise allowed “Books” and “Readers” alike to meet people from other walks of life that they may not otherwise have had the opportunity to meet.

The Human Library was started several years ago in Denmark to help break down barriers and end prejudice.  The idea was simple: if you meet people from other walks of life, people different than yourself, they become real and no longer belong to a faceless group.  Once people start talking and getting to know one another, it becomes harder to discriminate against others as we realize we are more similar than we are different.  For more information, please go to www.humanlibrary.org.

On Thursday April 10th, at the OCC Highland Lakes Campus Student Center from noon – 3pm, our Human Library will have 13 Human Book titles.  Please come and check them out.

Submitted by Allison McFadden-Keesling

Faculty Librarian
Highland Lakes Campus Library