WebJunction - Group: Living Library Project

Living Library Project: Don’t Judge a Book By Its Cover

2009-12-03T19:58:33Z

Archive and related resources from July 22, 2009 webinar on the Living Library Project a community building library program where participants “check out” Living Books for a personal conversation.

Living Library Project: Don’t Judge a Book By Its Cover

Originally presented July 22, 2009.

The Living Library is a unique event that brings together people who have special interests, beliefs or experiences to speak with people from different backgrounds and share their personal story. In this innovative program participants can "check out" Living Books for a personal conversation. Both the Bainbridge Island and Santa Monica Public Libraries executed two successful Living Library events. The Bainbridge Island event covered such diverse experiences as life as a quadriplegic, a female police officer, a young gay man and an atheist. Santa Monica Public Library’s Living Books included a fat activist, a formerly homeless person, an ex-gangmember and a nudist. Presenters for this webinar are leads from these projects: Rebecca Judd from the Bainbridge Island (WA) branch of the Kitsap Regional Library System, and Julie MacDonald and Rachel Foyt from the Santa Monica Public Library in Santa Monica (CA). Hear how they planned and implemented the project in their libraries, and find out how you can create a Living Library in your community.

Archive viewing options:

View in Wimba Classroom (combined archive of audio, slides and chat)

Note: If this is your first time using Wimba, check to see if your computer has the software and hardware required by walking through the Setup Wizard. If you still have problems using Wimba Classroom, consult the Wimba Classroom Guide.

View the slides (pdf)

Listen to audio-only recording (mp3)

View Chat log (xls)

Learn more on this topic:

Join the new Living Library Project Group and share resources and discussions!
InfoSpeak interview with Ulla Brohed as she discusses the Malmö Living Library in Sweden
Living Library documents from the Bainbridge Island Library
Living Library documents from the Santa Monica Public Library
Living Library documents from the Olympia Timberland Library
Living Library website: living-library.org/
Press Coverage:
- Library Journal article: “Living Library” Debuts in Santa Monica
- Seattle PI article about Bainbridge Island Library: At this library, you can check out a person instead
- MSNBC article: Quiet, please! The library is talking to you
- Bainbridge Island Kitsap Sun article
- CBC News video (good intro to Living Library)
- Book Review from Los Angeles Times
- CQ Politics online
- USA Today (AP!)
See also: Public Library Programming for Adults
Tweets from the session

RE: recruiting readers

2009-07-23T18:42:06Z

Thanks so much for your post here, for all your great Olympia Living Library resources and for participating in the webinar today!

You're a model of WJ engagement! But I knew that way back when you were awarded the 2007 Spanish Language Outreach Program Diversity Fair Scholarship for another great project!

Overview

2009-07-22T23:05:11Z

A group for librarians interested in the Living Library Project. Learn from other members who have successfully planned and implemented a Living Library event at their library. The Living Library is a unique event that brings together people who have special interests, beliefs or experiences to speak with people from different backgrounds and share their personal story. In this innovative program participants can "check out" Living Books for a personal conversation.

Living Library News

View the archive of the recent webinar: Living Library Project: Don’t Judge a Book By Its Cover

recruiting readers

2009-07-22T18:12:33Z

Here at Olympia, even with our media coverage, we didn't have a huge turn out but it was definitely a quality over quantity kind of program! We think that attendance will continue to grow as we host more Living Library events.

Our event happened to fall on a gloriously sunny Saturday afternoon (which is pretty rare in our extremely gray and rainy part of the country). We assume this contributed to our low numbers and we decided to hold our next event in the Fall or Winter.

I also met a woman at our event who teaches cultural competency at our local community college and at a local state college. We talked about aligning our next event with one of the first weeks of one of her academic quarters because she is used to doing a similar program with her students. This way, we would have a guaranteed audience of her students and the event would still be open to the public at large. So for your first event, you might want to consider partnering with a professor or high school teacher (who could assign the program as extra credit, for example) to ensure a certain number of participants.

I spoke with many potential readers who were very interested in the program but too shy to actually check out any living "books."
That said, even reading through the catalog is a pretty powerful experience and I think those individuals benefitted from doing so.

If you have any questions about any of our documents from Olympia or about our event, don't hesitate to email me at spete@trlib.org!

Sara Peté

Living Library Documents from Santa Monica Public Library

2009-07-21T21:46:15Z

Templates used by Santa Monica Public Library in their Living Library Program.

Documents and Templates used by Julie MacDonald and Rachel Foyt from the Santa Monica Public Library in Santa Monica (CA). Find out more in the webinar archive: Living Library Project: Don’t Judge a Book By Its Cover

See attached documents for:

Living Library Catalog

Checkout Schedule

Living Library Appointment Card

Living Library Documents from Bainbridge Island Library

2009-07-21T21:38:07Z

Templates used by the Bainbridge Island (WA) branch of the Kitsap Regional Library System in their Living Library Program.

Documents and Templates used by Rebecca Judd from the Bainbridge Island (WA) branch of the Kitsap Regional Library System in the Living Library Program. Find out more in the webinar archive: Living Library Project: Don’t Judge a Book By Its Cover

See attached documents for:

Guidelines for Living Books Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Guidelines for Readers

Living Library Card

Living Library Catalog Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Evaluation for Readers

Evaluation for Books