With the succesfull launch of the new book collection at Heineken UKs headquarters in Edinburgh on Tuesday October 1st and the public event hosted two days later at Edinburgh Business School, the city joins a growing list of communities across the world, that host a Human Library Book Depot.

A collection of people

The Human Library book depot is a group of volunteers that are available to be published as open books on topics that can help us better understand our diversity. The Human Library is a safe space for conversations, where difficult questions are answered by people with personal experience that volunteered to share their knowledge.

Heineken a diversity partner of the library

One of the new books from Edinburgh in talks with a reader at Edinburgh Business School.

The new book depot, a first for Scotland, has been made possible with support from our Diversity Partner, Heineken UK.

Jane Brydon, HR Director, HEINEKEN UK says of the project: “It’s been fantastic partnering with The Human Library over the last three years. This is really at the forefront of inclusion and diversity and it’s great to be able to help engage more people from the local community and our employees in the programme.

“Our main goal for investing in The Human Library is to support the Scottish community, as well as encouraging our employees to establish a culture of inclusion – Something we believe is key to happiness in life and business. We want to continue to create an inclusive environment that nurtures creativity and innovation, values differences and allows employees to be their whole authentic self at work.”

A community book collection

The book depot was officially launched on October 1st, at Heineken UKs offices in Edinburgh, hosting an event for HR professionals from the Scottish Leaders Forum. The response was overwhelmingly positive and invitations to engage with more local partners are already incoming. The next public event is scheduled for November 21st at Edinburghs Central Library.

Once the bookshelf is stocked with a diversity of topics, it is expected that the book depot will be able to host 12 to 24 Human Library events annually. Human Libraries take place in schools, colleges, universities, libraries, festivals, conferences and at work places.

More details about the next event is available here and you can follow the development in the book depot here. If you are a potential book please consider applying to be published using the online application form available here.

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Tomorrow marks a historic day for the Human Library in the UK and especially for our readers in Scotland. It is the day where our new book depot in Edinburgh start its operations and journey toward sustainability. Soon readers will be able to take advantage.

Two years with support from Heineken UK

The new book depot is part of a two year project to build a sustainable book depot, that will enable us to serve our readers and partners in the city. The new book depot has been made possible only with support from our first and largest diversity partner in the UK, Heineken.

Human Libraries available in Edinburgh

For the members of the community in Edinburgh this means that soon we will be able to accommodate invitations to publish our books and to meet the demand from our readers. Typically we host our events in schools, libraries, universities, festivals and work places. It is always free to readers.

Books and librarians needed for the bookshelf

You can have no library without a proper book collection so readers can dive in. Soon we shall start advertising for new books to join our book depot and for other volunteers to join us as librarians. And so the recruiting and training of new books and librarians is underway. We expect to be able to offer our readers access to the first events in the fall of 2019. A book depot with critical mass can typically host 24-30 events annually (Copenhagen carried by 140 members).

Want to get involved?

From now on and onward, we will always need more great books to fill up our bookshelf. To help us answer questions from our readers. If you are able to speak openly about a stigmatizing topic and through your experiences help us challenge the prejudices and stereotypes, then please think about signing up to be published or to become part of the librarian team that does.

How demanding is it to be a volunteer in the Human Library?

If you volunteer with the Human Library, it is because you are able to donate at least 4-6 hours of your time a month. To come out and be published at least once a month. Sure if you miss one month that is fine, but this is what to expect. Before you can be published we must verify your content and provide you with training to become a book.

More information on how to join the Human Library can be found here:

How to become a volunteer book

To reach out directly to our book depot manager in Edinburgh, click here

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This Easter weekend book depot managers from England, Estonia, Netherlands, Romania, Scotland, Ukraine and the United States will come together in Copenhagen for the Human Library Book Depot Manager Training.

New sustainable book depots

They come here from all over the world to help us build strong sustainable book depots for the Human Library in their communities. Some have hosted many events and others are starting from scratch with only their skills and dedication to help create a more inclusive and understanding community.

A resource to the community

A Human Library Book Depot is just like it sounds, a collection of books and librarians ready to render a Human Library. A book depot receives invitations from local partners to bring out the books and publish them to readers. Typically the invitations come from educational institutions, libraries, festivals and some from the private sector.

Making events easily accessible

A book depot with enough volunteer books and librarians, can publish anywhere from 12 to 30 times a year. Some book depots have been in operation for many years and hold over a 100 different books. With a local book depot events can be rendered with very high quality in content, delivery and methodology while keeping preparation time down. Something that has stopped many from repeating events despite the tremendous impact.

Depot Manager is key to the collection

The book depot manager is the person overall responsible for the operation and development of the book depot. All matters regarding recruiting, delivering events, care taking for books and volunteers and keeping quality, are matters for the book depot manager to handle. It takes the right person and the understanding of our vision along with the skills, tools and network to build it. But when you built it, they will come. Books, librarians and readers.

New cities and developing existing collections

The training in Copenhagen will help us launch new book depots in Edinburgh, New York City, Prague and Kharkiv. While reinforcing our presence and adding to the positive work already done in cities like Bucharest, London, Tilburg and Tallinn. For more readers and books to take advantage. Soon readers in the mentioned cities will be able to more easily take advantage of the safe space the Human Library provides. The space to ask difficult questions and get an honest answer.

This program is funded entirely by the Human Library Organization and our volunteers.

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