Emily Vigneri
On September 16, 2014, Illinois State University held its first-ever Human Library. If you’re not familiar with the term “Human Library” (and don’t worry, you’re not alone!), it was started in Denmark in 2000 by a youth organization called “Stop the Violence.”
Members of “Stop the Violence” were looking for a way to encourage conversation among individuals who are different from one another. To do that, they decided to provide a safe, non-threatening way for individuals to engage in meaningful conversations with one another about stories that are different from their own.
These stories are typically in relation to some prejudice, hardship, or discrimination that the storyteller, known as a Book, tells to listeners (known as Readers) in an effort for to challenge preconceived notions, biases, or prejudices that the Readers may hold themselves. The Readers are permitted to ask questions of the Books, something that many of us find hard to do in everyday life, especially when our questions pertain to extremely personal or perhaps difficult experiences in someone’s life.
Due to the widespread success of this initiative, Wendi Whitman, an Associate Director in University College at Illinois State, heard the idea at an American Democracy Project conference and brought the concept back to campus. A committee of individuals from different areas of campus was formed to organize the event, and I was fortunately selected to work on securing Books.
For several months, the committee worked to set up an online registration system for the event, secure facilities, and recruit/train Books and Librarians. Librarians were students asked to help keep the Books feeling safe and intervene should any of the Readers’ questions or actions become hostile. We were hopeful that this would not happen (and it did not), but since we were asking students to challenge their prejudices about various groups, we wanted to ensure that were doing all that we could for our Books. We also led training sessions for Readers (students enrolled in a first-year seminar); we asked them to be respectful of all Books and encouraged them to ask good questions, as the Books were there to help the Readers learn.
On the day of the event, we welcomed 459 first-year students to the Bone Student Center where they listened to 33 Books covering topics such as suicide, bullying, LGBTQ issues, traumatic brain injury, anxiety, and more. Our evaluation results from the event were astounding – 100 percent of Books who completed an evaluation would encourage others to participate; many of our Books commented on how cathartic and therapeutic it felt to share their stories. Of the 306 student evaluations we received, 99 percent of students would recommend participating in the Human Library to other students, and 97 percent believed there was a respectful environment during the Human Library. Due to the success of our event, we are very excited to hold our next Human Library on September 23, 2015!
For more information about the event or to participate as a volunteer or Book, e-mail HumanLibrary@IllinoisState.edu.