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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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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Two new Human Library book depots in Aarhus and Odense

It won’t be long before our readers on the Island of Fyn and residents of East Jutland, Denmark, will have access to a human book that volunteered to answer difficult questions on challenging topics. With the expansion we are finally nationwide at home.

With support from Roskilde Festival we are working on expanding our danish book collection by establishing two more Human Library books depots in Denmark. The new book depots will focus on serving the greater Aarhus and Odense regions.

The Human Library Book Depot

A book depot is a group of volunteer books and librarians who facilitate events at libraries, schools, high schools, universities, festivals, etc. We publish our books in order to help improve interpersonal understanding and to build a greater acceptance of our differences and diversity. A typical book depot will carry over 50 books and help deliver 10-30 events each year.

Reaching more readers

A book depot essentially enables us to prepare and host events with less prep time and less cost and they allow us to multiply the amount of events we can facilitate. With two more book depots in operation by 2019 we expect to be able to host over 60 events annually. Bringing the total amount of books on storage in our Danish book depots to 300+.
Request events off the bookshelf

Having a local Human Library Book Depot will allow for us to ensure quality in content, care take for our books and work directly with a wide range of local partners that want to host the Human Library, but is unable to build their own from scratch. In fact once fully stacked with books and librarians, it will be possible to deliver events with high quality that are time and cost efficient.

Reading human books is a global phenomena

Since 2000 the Danish Human Library has spread to more than 80 countries worldwide. This is the place where you can challenge prejudices and have a one-to-one dialogue with some of the most vulnerable groups in society. Here human books are on loan for personal conversations where you can ask about everything within the topic
Do you want to join us

We can always use more Books and Librarians for our events. Please fill out an application on our website to join our work.

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