On Wednesday the 24th of January the Human Library set a new reader record with 500 employees from Danish international manufacturing company Velux, joining our “Reading Hall” sessions in Odense, the hometown of renowned author of fairy tales, Hans Christian Andersen. 

Reading Hall full of innovators

The Odeon concert hall floor was lined with tables all buzzing with courageous conversations. Yet the space revealed an amazing acoustic capability that ensured everyone in each group of “readers” were audible. The learning exercise was embedded in a global conference for staff from Velux Products & Innovation.

“We are here to kick off our next step to ensure a more sustainable and inclusive workplace” said Tina Mayn, Executive Vice President for products at Velux to Danish broadcaster TV2/Fyn. 

A fantastic learning experience

A body modified book with readers from Velux Products & Innovation.

Never before has the Human Library published its books for so many in one afternoon and the response from readers was both moving and quite significant. Hundreds submitted a reader’s review and many stopped by the librarians on their way out to say thank you for a great day.

“This was an incredibly beautiful and fantastic learning experience. I found it to be very valuable and I had outcomes that I know will stay with me” said Velux innovation and research lead Anna Clausen, after her readings.

Continuing the conversations online

More than 25 different topics were published for our record 500 readers from Velux. Including ADHD, autism, Cerebral Palsy, HIV, cancer survivor, amputee, transgender, obesity, and being body modified. 

To celebrate the milestone all 500 from Velux were invited to register for a complimentary Library Card with access to more readings on our online bookshelf. 

Anna Clausen also signed up for more books.

“I am curious to explore – “what I didn’t know, I didn’t know”. It’s pretzeled, but basically I have a great respect for the fact that there is so much I don’t know (nuances, similarities, taboos etc.) both on known and unknown topics.”

Conclusions

The Human Library sessions for Velux stands as a testament to the power of open dialogue in creating more inclusive workplaces. By breaking down barriers and encouraging conversations about diverse experiences, Velux has taken a significant step toward building a workplace that values the richness of its employees’ backgrounds and perspectives. The success of this event reinforces the importance of such initiatives in fostering understanding, empathy, and unity within organizations.

Watch the TV2/Fyn news report from the event here

Read more about the Human Library online here

Visit Velux here

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Linda from Copenhagen, Denmark, has one of the more unique titles on the Human Library bookshelf; Psychic healer. In 2018, she came across a Facebook post about The Human Library Organization, which sparked a desire to join once she had the time and mental capacity. Linda has now been a part of the Copenhagen book depot since June 2022.

Never Alone

Since childhood, Linda has lived with a sense of people being around her; “When I would ask them something, I got an answer. It was not just a feeling of yes or no. It was long and complicated sentences. Answers that I couldn’t have thought of, unpredictable answers. I have always felt that they were on my side.”

A Sixth Sense

Linda’s abilities are called Extra Sensory Perception, shortened as ESP, or popularly called a sixth sense. “It’s when your senses exceed the physical ones. We all live with the five senses that we know, but with extra sensory, I can see memories that are not my own, for example.”, Linda explains. “If you asked me about something from your childhood, I can close my eyes, tune in, and see the situation you’re talking about. A situation you’ve never told me about that no one could know without having been there.”

Bullied by her Bosses

Linda’s readers have the opportunity to learn about her abilities and her job as a healer, but for Linda, it is equally important to touch upon what it has been like to live as an outsider. “Because I’m a psychic, I have been bullied to the point of having to see a therapist. I’ve had to leave four different jobs because my co-workers were bullying me. At two of those places the boss was also part of the bullying.”

“Since I was a teenager, I’ve talked about clairvoyance and being psychic, and I have met a lot of resistance. It definitely has not been fun, and there have been times where I’ve thought, ‘Maybe I should just shut up about it’.” Linda says when asked about her reasons for wanting to become an open Book. 

“I’ve also had to deal with depression regularly because I have felt like there was no room for me in society. So it was actually a way to fight back.”

Challenging the Stigmas and Stereotypes

The fight Linda talks about is not only about her own experiences but also those of her colleagues within the alternative treatment community and their clients: “There is this stigma about psychics, which is what I represent, and other alternative treatment providers, that we’re crazy, that we’re naive, and we’ll believe anything. There are so many prejudices about what we are and who the people that come to see us are.”

Lockdown Changed Attitudes

But this attitude has recently started to change; Linda herself believes that the lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic have led many more to research alternative medicine, healing and clairvoyance while in self-isolation.

“I think many people have been watching Netflix and YouTube at home on the couch and come across alternative documentaries, of which there are some amazing ones, and started thinking, ‘maybe there is something to it’,” Linda says. “Now, when I tell people that I’m psychic, people say, ‘Wow, that’s exciting; tell me more’. It used to be, ‘Oh, so you’re someone I’m allowed to bully’.”

“It’s a completely new society that I’ve returned to.” She laughs. “It used to be a discussion about whether clairvoyance is real. Now, it’s more of a dialogue about how it is possible, whether I’ve always had these experiences, and how it feels. They are curious about what is going on within the psychic. I really like talking about that.”

Read Linda in Copenhagen

One way to get the opportunity to read Linda is if you drop by the Human Library Reading Garden in Copenhagen. We are open to the public every Sunday from noon to 4 pm, and as always, the services of the Human Library are free to our readers.

Want to know more about our Books? Read about our last Book of the Month, Paris.

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The concept of the Book Bus was introduced last year, as the pandemic eased its grasp on the everyday life of the Danes. 

The aim of the tour is to reach areas of Denmark, where we have not yet had the opportunity to offer axcess to our Bookshelf. Inclusion is also about being inclusive to our Readers, and to ensure that the Human Library is not a phenomenon exclusively available in the large cities. 

From festival to festival

This year’s Summer Tour launched at Northside Festival, and we are fortunate to have been invited to publish our Books at quite a few festivals. This means that visitors at “Tinderbox”, “Grobund Building Festival”, and “Musik i Lejet” will get the opportunity to borrow our Books. And as always, The Human Library is free for all. 

The festival scene is a special meeting place for Books and Readers. A place where many people get together and are eager to discover new things. The ambiance of joy, coexistence and relaxation creates an accommodating environment for Readers and Books to come together and engage in dialogue about our diversity. Creating a framework, where you can safely experience and explore your own unconscious bias. 

Community events

Besides the “festival” stops the book bus will also visit a range of smaller towns and publish books at pop up events. One of the stops will be at the beach in Kerteminde. A town where many Danes like to visit during the holiday. 

The Tour will include books from our local book depots in Aarhus, Esbjerg, Odense and Copenhagen. Offering an opportunity for books and librarians from across the country to connect.

For more information on the Human Library Summer Tour and other Human Library sessions:
Human Library Events Page

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As an intern at the Human Library, you will be working closely with and be responsible for coordinating and implementing independent projects. As part of the secretariat team, you will also be involved in tasks from different areas of responsibility, collaborating with other interns, volunteers, and employees. We value making use of each other’s resources and perspectives across differences, and experiences. You can read more about the different positions here:

• Internship at our International Department
• Internship with International Corporate Partnership Team

We are always interested in applications from skilled and engaged persons regardless of ethnic background, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities, religion, or age. We also encourage candidates with special needs to apply.

Send your Cover Letter, CV, and relevant material to Head of Secretariat, Silke Bech no later than Monday March 28th at 12PM. Interviews will be held shortly after. 

Read more about the Human Library

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The Human Library Organization has accepted an invitation to publish our books at the Danish Parliament as part of Constitution Day celebrations. Members of parliament, staff and all citizens are encouraged to drop by and unjudge someone.

MPs to feature on bookshelf

As part of the event on June 5th we have invited two members of the Parliament to be trained as open books. In doing so, they will help us challenge prejudice about elected officials and be on loan to readers, along with topics such as refugee, bipolar, transgender, Jew, homeless, unemployed, HIV + and many more.

Conversations about our diversity

The purpose of the event is to create a safe space for a democratic dialogue about our diversity. Where we can have conversations that help us challenge what we think we know about each other. It is a cornerstone value of our democracy that we have respect for the right to be different and the right to have different views. But it is increasingly important that we remind each other of the value in that recognition.

Free to our readers

We expect to publish more than 25 different titles on Constitution Day. It’s free for everyone to join, and loans can have a duration of up to 30 minutes. Readers under the age of 15 need to accompanied by an adult.

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I had tears in my eyes at times during my first publication as an open book in the Human Library. I was part of a book collection that featured around 70 different topics, all represented by brave people committed to challenging stigma and stereotypes by way of their example.

Strength in our diversity

A book with his readers in Nyborg.It was 70 very different people that slowly filled up the space in the “book depot”, a room serving as our backstage. People were everywhere, some sitting down to have a coffee some stepped outside on the terrace in the sun, many laughing and hugging each other. 

There was a woman hard of hearing, a man in a wheelchair, a blind woman with her dog, a girl wearing a niqab, another with a headscarf, cancer patients, HIV positive along with someone to talk about obesity. Some of them have been sexually abused. Many have a history with mental health issues: borderline, schizophrenia, social phobias, ADHD, OCD. A tall, slender man in very colorful, fluttering robes and seriously tall stilettos unfolds his huge fan out with a slap and generously divides the airflow to those next to him. Others sit a bit by themselves and I am one of them.

I am overwhelmed and very nervous. It’s my first day as an actual book in the Human Library. This library has people

on its bookshelf, people that volunteered to be an open book on a challenging and often stigmatised topic. When the books share their personal experiences in open conversation with their readers, something very powerful happens. As if our defenses are abandoned and instead, curiosity is invited to occupy the space.

My title is “Journalist” and I have little confidence as we get close to deadline in my personal edition. I have to talk about myself and I expect to answer a lot of questions. Usually I am the one to ask all the questions. Today, the roles are changed. And it is a huge event – the largest Human Library ever. More than 400 readers, assembled at a conference organized through the Labour Union HK and all of them work as assistants in Dental Clinic in the public sector in Denmark. They are waiting for us.

Meeting readers at table 16

Questions and the answers flew across the tables.Nadja Thomsen, a librarian from the Human Library, stands up on a chair so all can see and hear her explain how it the day will run. I belong to group B out of three groups, and each group has two librarians to guide and take care of us.

My first reading will be at table number 16 and right now, I have no idea what to say if my readers do not ask me something.

But when the other books can do it, then so can I. I remember that I have been trained carefully and that my content is clear and my chapters are sorted out. I am prepared for the role of an open book. I want to try and help challenge prejudices about journalists. 

And now it is time, together with the other books, our librarians lead us into the big conference room at Hotel Nyborg Strand, to meet my first readers.

“Hi. My name is Lene.”

Was my opening line, while I politely shook hands with everyone at the table.

“I became a journalist because I want to make the world a better place,” I said and explained a little about my background. And then I quickly had to add that it was not always the result”.

“Can journalists keep their own personal opinions out of their stories?,” one reader asked, after I had talked about myself for what felt like a while now. Something uncommon for a journalist.

“It is virtually impossible to completely avoid,” I answered, explaining how we should always aim to be neutral and that we are not always able to.

I also mention how nervous I really am.

“It always helps to say it out loud,” says one of my readers.

“You’re fine,” says another.

Two of my readers share that they had actually agreed to go home early from the conference, but when they heard what the Human Library was all about, they decided to stay and take part in the program.

“It is super exciting to be allowed to talk to you and some of the other books,” one of them says.

I am touched that they think I – and all the other books – are worth hanging around for on this beautiful and sunny Saturday.

After half an hour the reading comes to an end and we have to change tables. My readers at the next table are a little baffled when they learn that I’m a journalist.

“But I don’t mind journalists,” one says. “You’re alright.”

Easier than wearing a Niqab

The book published just before me was transgender. He probably had to answer more critical questions and is probably more interesting to read than a journalist, I hear myself thinking. In my group, readers could also read the girl in the Niqab. She gets a lot of critical questions and some negative comments – especially at one table, she shared at the evaluation after the event. It is easier to be a journalist than to wear the Niqab in public. But journalists have much more power and can really do quite a lot of harm, I think. There are obviously hierarchies of prejudice in society. Books with content that carry a strong stigma and more light books, like my occupational topic. I understand that I’m not in the heavy end and I get a bad taste in my mouth just to think the thought. So why does a Niqab bring such strong emotions into play?

I did not get a lot of critical questions or comments.

Journalist and open book Lene Rimestad with her readers.

“Would you like to work for a tabloid media,” one asks.

Another is really tired of the same, always writing about two things: dieting and tragedies.

A third said that she thought some politicians where getting a very poor treatment from the media during the recent elections to the Danish parliament.

At the third table I am received by a reader who exclaims enthusiastically:

“I just told the others here that the media are not good enough at doing their job and that they distort things. Then is it really fortunate that you come along right now, ”she says and wants to know more about why we covered the parliamentary election in the way we did.

She also asked me what my best interview was about. I had to think for a very long time only to realise that my best interview was not really an interview, but a conversation I had with a stranger recently.

The three readings ended only too quickly.

Standing ovations

Human Library standing ovations from HK members.I got tears in my eyes again when the founder of the Human Library, calls us all up on the stage. All of our readers then stand up and the ovations are many and loud. None of us had ever tried that before.

Afterwards, the books evaluate the day’s experience in the three groups.

“I had three good readings,” many said. And they are proud to have participated in such a big event.

“We are here not only for the sake of our readers. We are also here for our own sake. To experience how others look at us, to better understand”.

That’s how I feel as well. We learn from their questions to us, and we get our own knowledge of them tested. And maybe – after a few hours together – we move a little closer together to allow each other to be yourself: to be human with all that it entails.

Facts:

Books from the Human Library Organizations book depots in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense and Esbjerg were published at Hotel Nyborg Strand, as part of the Danish Labour Union HKs Conference for their Dental Clinic Assistants members in municipal and regional dental care. 70 books were published and over 400 readers attended the conference. A book depot is a local chapter of the Human Library full of books and librarians that host events in schools, libraries, universities, conferences and festivals to name a few.

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We have hosted thousands of events. Facilitated more than a million conversations. But we have never published 80 books to serve 420 readers at the same time. That will be the scene on June 22nd, when members of the Danish Labour Union HK become readers of the Human Library at Hotel Nyborg Strand.

Books sourced from four book depots

It is no easy feat to assemble 80 volunteer books that can all be available on the same date. It has taken more than three months to coordinate and gather our books from four different book depots across Denmark.

The depot in Copenhagen, which is also the largest in the world, naturally is yielding the majority of the content we will publish, but our local book depot on Fyn close to Nyborg will also contribute and so will the book depots in Aarhus and Esbjerg. Making it a national team effort and a historic day in more ways than one. In our 19 years of work, we have never had this many books and so many book depots in operation.

Recipient of HKs Honorary Jytte Award

The Human Library and HK have a strong history. In our daily life, we work closely with library assistants whenever we visit public libraries across the country. Since 2017 we have hosted several events for different member groups of the labour union, typically as part of conference programming. In 2017 we were honored to receive HKs Jytte Award from the Library Assistants Association, in recognition of our contribution to the public library sector.

Record readers come from dental clinics

When they are not participating in a labour union conference, the readers on this record making day, all work in dental clinics across the country. In their daily job many of them are in contact with a very diverse group of patients and this session perhaps can add to their knowledge and understanding of diversity.

This event is not open to the public.

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We all know it can be difficult to find the time to pop by the local library for an event. So from the 30th of March until the beginning of May you can take even more home with you, when you visit Rødovre Centrum to do your weekend shopping.

The Human Library has accepted and invitation to publish our books for the many shoppers that come through Denmark’s first and friendliest shopping center for families.

Free and open to everyone

It is free to borrow books from the Human Library and the events are open to everyone. Once you have found your topic at the desk, you and your book can sit in the designated reading area or you may bring the book with you on your rounds and chat on the go.

Readers under the age of 15 must be accompanied by an adult (18). Loans can have a duration of up to 30 minutes, but you may return your book before, if you feel that you have gotten the information or answers to what you were looking for.

Rules for lending

In many ways the Human Library is just like the classic library. Here you also have to bring the books back on time and in the same condition as it was given to you. However our books cannot be taken home and they are not allowed to help you carry the goods you may purchase. But if you bring your curiosity and questions, then we can promise that you will not leave empty-handed.

Link to more information about the upcoming events (in Danish): https://www.facebook.com/events/2026710380956580/

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Sports and recreation

The funds are some that we applied for from the Department for Sport and Recreation, and with the commitment to support, the municipality of Aarhus makes it clear that they want to see more meetings between people in public spaces. Meetings where we have time to look each other in the eyes and talk about issues that we normally might try to avoid or do not feel we have a safe frame or proper prerequisites to get into. That is the framework that the Human Library creates and in 2019 we will be able to create many more in Aarhus.

Many new volunteers

A book depot for East Jutland will make it possible for us to facilitate up to 30 events annually in collaboration with educational institutions, festivals, libraries and private companies and this will activate many new volunteers. A fully-featured book depot will be able to support activities throughout the region and thus act as a central collection of human resources that we can quickly mobilize. We look forward to welcoming the many new books and librarians in the Human Library East Jutland book depot.

Historical commitment

It is the first time in the 18 years The Human Library has existed that a Danish municipality provides support for the establishment of a local book depot. It is a bit historic for us, so thank you for the trust and support of the municipality of Aarhus, and thank you to all the people in Aarhus.

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A Human Library for Children

It has been a long journey full of tremendous learnings. We are still learning and finding new ways to create a safe space for difficult conversations. For open exchanges of courage and curiosity. Few are more open than children and if permitted by their parents, they will ask the most amazing and fruitful questions. Tonight we will know some of them and the answers given by the books from our bookshelf at the first Human Library for children and their parents.

The event will take place on October 12th, 2018 at from 6 to 8 pm at Copenhagen Central Library.

A special selection of content

The bookshelf for this event has been edited especially to fit current topics and issues that could be of interest to children. This includes a Refugee from Syria, a person with disability, a topic about eating disorders, a police officer, a victim of bullying, a formerly homeless woman and a person who is body modified. Normally people under the age of 15 have to be in the company of an adult to attend a Human Library and to borrow a book.

Conversations at the event will be up to 30 minutes with no option to extend. We are looking forward to welcoming our youngest readers ever for conversations about important issues.

The Human Library for children has been prepared in partnership with the Childrens Library of the Copenhagen Central Library as part of Copenhagen Culture Night 2018.

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