Have you ever wondered about other religions? Or what it is like to be deaf? Or what it is like to be transgender? At the OCC Highland Lakes Campus Human Library on Wednesday November 9, 2016, the HL Campus Diversity Committee and OCC Libraries will host our eleventh 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 in 2000 in Denmark to help break down barriers and end prejudice. The idea is 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 Wednesday November 9, at the OCC Highland Lakes Campus Student Center Arena from 10am – 2pm, our Human Library will have 25 Human Book titles. Please come and check them out.
Allison McFadden-Keesling, Library Faculty
