Diversity Week
Living Library - Celebrating diversity through simple conversation
Tuesday 4th August10.15am-12.00pm
Marquee/Courtyard
s s for students and staff
10.00am LIVING LIBRARY LAUNCH
Professor Gail Whiteford Pro Vice-Chancellor (Social Inclusion)
10.05am WELCOME to COUNTRY
SMOKING CEREMONY
Chris Tobin
10.15am LIVING LIBRARY
Various
12.00 LUNCH
Living Library Project
What IS a Living Library? The Living Library works exactly like a normal library where readers come to borrow a Book, return the Book to the library and then borrow another Book if they choose. There is only one difference…the Books in the Living Library are human beings and the Books and Readers enter into a personal dialogue.
The Living Library idea itself is a simple one: Getting to know the people in your community breaks down barriers and builds understanding. The idea behind the Living Library is that personal contact is very powerful in breaking down barriers – seeing the human being in the 'other' and realising that the stereotype never does justice to a person. It's about building social cohesion in the community and increasing acceptance and understanding. It's about celebrating diversity and fostering respect and appreciation of that diversity.
As an example, Lismore Library in NSW was the first in Australia to conduct a Living Library since November 2006. This project provides the opportunity for people in their diverse community, who would normally never interact, to come together in a safe, supervised environment where the expectation is that you can freely exchange dialogue and ideas
Our local community has a diverse range of people from a variety of cultures, religions and races. Indigenous people, homeless people, refugees, people of diverse sexuality, retirees, are all living here together. We don't often get the opportunity to interact with each other in a meaningful way and false assumptions about different groups can develop.
Living Library Readers choose whom they would like to borrow from the book catalogue display in the foyer and come to the information desk to arrange the loan. The 'loan' will last for half an hour (30 minutes). If Readers are not able to get the particular Living Book that they wanted to borrow, the librarians are able to direct them to another Living Book – this is one of the great things about the Living Library – a Reader may end up reading a book that they wouldn't have necessarily chosen first and therefore have an experience that they wouldn't have had the inclination or opportunity to otherwise.
This inaugural Living Library event is an initiative of Macquarie University and will be held on Tuesday 4 August from 10am-1pm to celebrate 2009 Diversity Week.
For more information please contact
Cheryle Yin-Lo
Living Library Project Coordinator
Tel: 4758 7193 or 0407 409 445
Email: cheryle@culturalconnexions.org