>> Welcome to Promote Community 

Engagement and Challenge 

Prejudice with a Human Library.

With two libraries, first we 

have Lisa Thornell from the 

DiMenna-Nyselius Library in 

Fairfield, Connecticut, at the 

Fairfield University in 

Connecticut.

And Rebecca Hass and Monica 

Powell come to us from the Anne 

Arundel County public library in 

Maryland.

Thank you so much for being 

here.

We're so glad to have you here 

and very excited to learn about 

this important work.

I'm going to pass it on other to 

Lisa to get us started.

Thank you so much for being 

here, Lisa.

>> Wonderful.

Thank you for having us.

Thank you for joining, 

everybody.

Our agenda is as follows:

 we're going to talk about how 

to plan and implement human 

library event, how our books and 

staff are prepared and then how 

our two libraries have 

successfully offered this.

And we are just two examples.

There's lots of different ways 

you can do this and we know that 

many of you are coming from 

smaller libraries, even from 

group organizations and maybe 

you are a government or federal 

organization, not even a public 

or academic library so we will 

try to earn questions that, for 

you and we will go over all the 

resources that we have.

There will be time for Q&A as we 

run over.

What is a Human Library?

That was the first question.

Very important.

We recommend that you look at 

the Human Library organization's 

website, if you are thinking 

about hosting this event.

Human Library.org.

This is a Dane issue 

organization that started this 

event in 2000.

There are Human Library in 85 

countries, as I checked today.

That number ticks up.

It is a worldwide movement for 

social change.

One tag line is unjudge someone.

One of the earlier tag lines I 

think still gets usedon't judge 

a book by its cover.

It is a conversational event 

where you have people signing up 

to be human books, you will hear 

that term a lot, human books and 

tell share a personal story with 

conversation with readers.

They have to be really 

intentional, anything that can 

challenge stereotypes, taboo, 

stigma, prejudice.

So we do have a poll question.

Have you participated in a Human 

Library before?

So you would be using the poll 

everywhere to tell us, yes, you 

participated as human book, yes, 

as read sore you've attended the 

event or not yet.

So you can use that link in the 

chat or if you can't use it, you 

can type it into the chat.

Not yet.

Okay it looks like that is 

winning out right now in the 

poll.

Okay, some readers.

Give you another moment to fill 

that out.

No books yet, huh?

Okay.

>> Wow, very interesting.

>> So the majority haven't 

participated yet.

That's okay.

Something we encourage, before 

you host a Human Library, it is 

great to try to attend one.

And since covid, it has actually 

been much easier to attend one 

because there are so many 

virtual Human Libraries taking 

place, put only individual 

organizations like ourselves or 

the Human Library organization 

itself is offering them with 

books coming from various 

countries that you can speak 

tomorrow you can find more of 

that on their website, 

humanlibrary.org but also on 

their Facebook page.

Every library is supposed to 

create a Facebook event for the 

event so they're all pulled into 

one central place so that might 

be a really good way to see, is 

there one physically going on 

near you, virtually or if you 
 

tune in to the organization's 

event.

We will talk about my 

organization in 2015, one of my 

colleagues heard about the event 

somewhere and brought it to 

library staff and also to the 

office of student diversity on 

our campus so a committee was 

established with lots of 

representatives across different 

departments.

That was key from the beginning, 

having a lot of collaboration 

and not having this just be 

something the library was 

offering.

So the first event was offered 

in 2016.

And, from the beginning, there 

was a big partnership with our 

first year student program so we 

have a lot of first year 

students that were coming to 

this and we had, I think around 

400 attendees at other first 

event.

We knew it was going to be big, 

we planned on it being a large 

scale event.

Don't be intimidated like, this 

I've seen small scale events, 

maybe 20 people, and that's 

great.

You can start out small.

We were building this into the 

first year experience curriculum 

so we had large numbers and I 

think the first year we had 

close to 40 human books that 

came.

So fast forward to 2020, with 

covid, we decided to host the 

5th annual event completely 

virtual.

That was actually a really great 

experience in my opinion, to try 

something new, to see how it can 

work on zoom.

The event became much more 

accessible to people this past 

year, when we had it in November 

2021, we decided to do it 

hybrid.

So have it on campus for people 

want thatted to have the 

in-person experience, which is 

how it was kind of always 

envisioned, and then continue to 

have a virtual option for those 

who are fully learning remote, 

you know, maybe physically are 

not able to make it to our 

campus so both, and also due to 

covid, people felt more 

comfortable being on Zoom so 

both offered.

That is a picture of our library 

there.

Okay, this was our planning 

timeline.

This may look different for you, 

but generally 4-5 months is when 

the hard core planning starts, 

choosing a date.

The most important part is 

submitting that application.

You do need to submit an 

application to the Human Library 

organization from the Danish 

organization, there is an 

organizer's tab, a sho form about 

your intentions, how you're 

going to plan it.

You would receive a license 

agreement, something to sign and 

get back.

Pay a fee, a pretty small fee, 

basically to use their 

registered trademark event name, 

logo, concept and you're 

agreeing you will be doing this 

for non-commercial purposes, eye 

essentially so when you pay that 

fee and send in your license 

agreement, you're given access 

to their drop box materials.

And there is a lot of great 

materials.

This is great news, especially 

in a smaller library and you 

don't have someone who can do 

graphics and things like that, 

there's plenty of marketing 

materials and training materials 

so it is helpful.

We did a committee meeting early 

on.

We wanted to bring in various 

partners outside the library to 

feels veried in this event and 

brainstorm different ideas how 

to change it each year.

Two months before we start 

recruiting the books, which we 

will get more into.

These are some of our campus 

partners, you can think about 

other in the community you can 

pull in, think about what roles 

they can have.

And they can help in capacity, 

with the running of the event.

They do make asks in the 

community find the books.

That's huge.

The more people I found can help 

us be on our committee to ask 

people who attend or be a book 

has been helpful.

So don't go this alone.

Have a team.

This is actually one of the 

earlier graphics the human 

library organization had 

provided, or the tag line real 

people, real conversations was 

used.

Want to include some of the 

older graphics, you can see 

those.

Since 2016, we've had 80 human 

books in our library that have 

within part of us throughout the 

years and almost 2,000 readers 

have attended our events.

This is a line of people, our 

students, faculty and staff at 

our university.

We also have the community was 

able to come to it, pre-covid, 

as well.

They would wait and you would 

see an image of a check out 

board and see what titles are 

available or they would have to 

wait for.

This is an example of the books 

that we had for our most recent 

Human Library.

Every year we're going to have 

totally different titles.

A big change for us, though is 

way the titles were presented so 

you can see from the list, it is 

pretty self explanatory.

You know what the book is going 

to be talking about.

The human library organization 

reached out and did ask us to 

make sure the titles were kept 

very simple so they were being 

very descriptive of the 

stereotype or prejudice they 

were trying to break down.

Previous years, we let people be 

more creative.

We would have lodger 

descriptions explaining them but 

we altered that this time.

It gives you a good sense of 

what kind of books we had.

Book training.

So, I know this can be different 

from library t library about with 

you but we would do a one-on-one 

as soon as they signed up.

We would use lib wizard.

We will reach out to set that up 

one-on-one meeting some people 

don't know what they signed up 

for so it is important to go 

over what they're doing and 

answer their questions.

We ask them a little bit about 

their story.

They don't have to go fully into 

their story but what do they 

want to teach people about 

themselves?

What life experiences are they 

sharing and help them come up 

with a title.

Often times, people need a lot 

of help with that so there is 

another role of the committee or 

your volunteers, having person 

or multiple people having these 

meetings.

One year I think we did have a 

drop in event for training, but 

since then it has been the one 

on ones and then we would create 

a two-page pdf with our event 

logistics and tips, it was like 

our training document, and we 

will give that to the books 

through e-mail the week before.

It would have things on there 

like where they're going to go 

to check in.

How we're making the event safe 

for them.

And here are tips and how to 

start the conversation.

Here are tips on how to pivot if 

you're being asked a question 

you don't feel comfortable 

answering.

We give them all.

That so something new that was 

offered this fall than might 

help some of you feel more 

comfortable about offering this 

event is the organization is now 

providing training to 

organizers.

So we've been doing since 2016.

2021 is the first time we 

offered it, so a zoom training 

different times of the day and 

be with organizers around the 

world, so that was really cool.

Marketing, we have graphics to 

show you how we've been doing 

over the years.

Bottom left, an image of a 

person's face with a title.

We moved away from it and not 

done so much with people's 

faces.

And about the middle, you see a 

graphic on the long one.

That is actually a large pull-up 

banner that we put out in our 

lobby of our building to try to 

get people to stop and learn 

about the event.

We don't have dates on it 

because we're able to reuse this 

banner every year and save 

money, we print out a little 

piece of paper and laminate it 

and colored paper we stick on to 

it somewhere that has the date 

of the event and the deadline 

for when we need books to sign 

up.

We can bring this maner to 

difference kind of tabling 

events on our campus.

And, on the right, we moved away 

from picture our books and we 

did digital boards, fliers, 

e-mail blasts have been 

successful.

Tabling events.

Personal asks and connecting 

with the first-year students in 

having the people that teach the 

classes to those first-year 

students push this event 

heavily.

Personal asks for us for our 

library has been the most 

success 68 way of getting books, 

so hence why the committee has 

been very key.

Actually, one of our research 

librarians, during a reference 

interaction I was able to get 

one or two books from them 

opening up about their life 

story related to a research 

question and we realized they 

would be a perfect fit for the 

event.

You never know where you're 

going to meet someone who can be 

a book.

This is a lot of bullet points, 

I'll tray to go quickly.

We've done this event fully in 

person, and online and hybrid.

We offer t-shirts.

It is not requires but it is 

really nice, like a thank you 

gift for everyone.

Books and volunteers get them so 

it helps attendees know who is 

part of the event, who they can 

go to, makes us feel like we are 

in this together.

I was going to put my shirt on 

today.

Maybe I will put it on later.

We have a lobby greeter which is 

important to explaining what the 

event is directing people to it.

It is traditionally all on the 

main floor of our building but 

also there is people who don't 

want to be part of a noisy 

event, they just want to study.

The greeters tell them, we have 

disposable ear buds, here they 

are, this is where you can find 

the quiet spaces.

We have a white board and we 

print out the book titles on 

magnetic paper and cut them so 

we can easily move those book 

titles from the two columns.

We have a column that says 

available books, a column that 

says checked out when someone 

comes to the front of the line 

and sees the board, they can 

visually see who can I speak to 

right now and who do I have to 

wait for.

The magnet paperworked out 

really well.

We learned that the second year.

Always 2-3 staff members on the 

board, someone moving the names 

and someone explaining what the 

event is about.

A lot of people will come to 

this event, wait in the line and 

you think they know what they're 

here for but they don't always 

know this is what they signed up 

for.

Explaining this is a 

conversational event.

You get to ask questions, you 

don't listen to the book going 

on and monologue, you're having 

in this and letting them know 

they're expected to participate.

Another volunteer role has been 

greeters.

They provide a list of our books 

so when people are waiting they 

can look there.

Also, a little laminated sheet 

about our rules or event guide 

lines.

Things like no photos, 

explaining things like this is 

about respectful dialogue ands 

will like resources of where 

they could go if they would like 

to follow up and continue their 

conversation.

So, readers basically are 

showing up, attendees are 

showing up to the event and they 

can either speak to the first 

available book or they can wait 

for specific books.

We've had even a designated 

corner they can sit and wait if 

there is someone they're, like, 

no I have to speak to that book 

and the wait is sometimes long 

time if this is someone they 

really want to speak.

To conversations are 

approximately 20 minutes.

Sometimes it is less.

You don't want it to be forced 

so whatever feels natural.

We don't set timers but we have 

a volunteer roll, we call them 

floaters, walking around making 

sure conversations look like 

they're going well and they may 

notice or people at the check 

out board may notice this 

conversation going 45 minutes 

and interest's people waiting 

for this -- there's people 

waiting for this book so we have 

to move this along.

They may come and say we have 

people waiting for you, can you 

wrap this up.

20-minute bees is a good number.

The first year we were stressing 

the one-on-one conversation, but 

because we have had a lot of 

readers and not a lot of books, 

we ask when we have that 

one-on-one screening meeting is 

asking them do they feel 

comfortable with more than one 

reader?

That is important because some 

of their stories can be so 

sensitive or they don't feel 

comfortable speaking to a group.

If it is the case that the book 

only wants to talk to one person 

could you make a note on those 

little check out board, the 

magnetic paper we can move from 

one side he have the board to 

the other to make a note on 

there for the number of readers 

they feel comfortable with.

When you're pairing people who 

should and shouldn't have that 

large group.

Conversations to place on one 

level of our library.

Due covid, we put people private 

study rooms but it is all very 

visible.

We've had people keep doors open 

so we can have floaters walking 

by to make sure conversations 

sound like they're going in the 

right direction, nobody needs to 

be rescued or needs help.

But you can do this in different 

ways and you can see photos 

later of this.

Providing a break room for the 

books and volunteers has been 

important from the beginning.

Food, drinks, laptops for a 

survey.

This a place volunteers go to 

check in or if they need a 

break.

Talking with be exhausting.

The books are telling a story 

like 10 times during our event 

so a space to go to take a 

break.

It is important.

We've done colored index cards 

or post-it notes.

We've given the books to tell 

them if they need to signal for 

help discreetly, need someone to 

intervene and end that 

conversation, that's a tool they 

can put that piece of paper out 

on the table in front of them 

and the floater walking by would 

know if they saw that colored 

piece of paper out, they need to 

step in.

When I say step in probably 

coming over and saying sorry we 

need to grab you, end this 

kempings.

It wouldn't be saying you need 

help?

What is the problem.

It would be no questions asked, 

we come in and rescue you.

It is something to help people 

feel safe.

In six years I don't think we've 

ever had to rescue anyone about 

it is a nice thing to offer.

Counseling and psychological 

services department is part of 

our committee since the 

beginning so though provide a 

counselor in a private study 

room too in all these years I 

think went to times we've had 

someone utilize it but it is 

nice to have someone offer that.

Sometimes conversations: 

triggering so maybe you have 

printed resources, here is how 

you can continue your 

conversation.

It is good to let the books know 

about that, too, they can tell 

the read fer they notice someone 

is in distress.

Having one of your volume tires 

be a photographer, it is good to 

document that year, especially 

remembering how things were 

done.

Even these photos today are 

jogging my minimumry of things 

we've done well or things we 

could change.

Having an your for no 

photography so some of your 

books may not want to be in any 

photographs.
.

That is putting something on the 

form, do you feel comfortable 

with social media, photography, 

fang have you local press, it is 

good they know where the no 

photography zone is and signage 

saying that.

Finally, a separate room for all 

the readers to take this survey.

We call the survey assessment, 

reflection, separate space to 

take that.

Search encouraged to do that 

before they left.

For the virtual event, it was 

done a bit differently that was 

something they had to register 

for.

Registering for a specific book 

for a specific 30-minute time 

slot, they were given the zoom 

link the day before or day of 

and we had to do reminders date 

before.

That was important for getting 

people to show up.

Given the reader guidelines in 

advance.

Seam ones the people were 

getting while they waited.

We sent t-shirts in the mail for 

the virtual books and books can 

change their names on Zoom to 

their title so they didn't have 

to have their first and last 

name there if they didn't feel 

comfortable.

The virtual event was different, 

we kept one book and reader 

together and we had a librarian 

putting them in breakouts.

Everyone was together initially 

on zoom, they heard a welcome 

and close, it was scripted so it 

was the same for everyone that 

signed up and they were put in 

the break out Jablonski rooms.

A survey was put in the -- in 

the breakout rooms.

A survey was nut in the room so 

they could take that.

And we had some volunteer to be 

a back up reader in case someone 

didn't know up for the virtual 

session and it would be sad if 

you have six books in the zoom 

five are in the breakout room 

talking to someone and one 

person has no one.

We triesed to avoid that with a 

back up reader so that was 

helpful.

We're precovid, all out in the 

library having conversations, 

real happening, good energy.

That's me at the check out board 

with the magnetic book titles I 

mentioned.

During covid we still had our 

checkout board.

That's me again, that is a bunch 

of raffle tickets so we were 

giving out tickets as people 

walk into the library.

They were numbered so they 

didn't all have to wait in a 

line, all congested against each 

other, do they wait for their 

number to be called.

We saw people in the lobby and 

then you can see on the right an 

image of a student speaking to 

three students in one of our 

study rooms, they're not all out 

in the open.

We tweaked it so there is more 

privacy, less disruptive.

We may stick with that in the 

future.

The reflection we had people 

take the on laptops or we put qr 

codes out this your on their 

phones has been a helpful tool 

explain the impact of this 

event.

We know as organizers how 

amazing the Human Library is but 

it was important to make sure 

other campus folks know about it 

so when we talk to others, like 

you guys today, we can share why 

this is such a special event.

I know it is hard, you can't 

read some of this here so if you 

want to look at this further, 

this info graphic, it son our 

website.

Go to fairfield.edu/humanlibrary 

and it son the human resortses 

tab.

We use this as a way to convey 

to faculty this event is 

impactful and maybe we can wore 

together on an assignment and 

experiential learning can 

happen.

For the sake of team, we don't 

go through all of these but 

grabbing quotes from the survey 

is so useful.

You can use it to market the 

event for the next year, this is 

why you should be a book or 

attend.

So some people saying this event 

has helped them feel more 

affirmed or sure of their own 

identity, someone saying it 

hipped them think about the 

different layers of their 

identity, they don't often show 

or keep hidden away.

I like this one, having 

discussions with other people is 

important for my own well-being.

Often times people come to this 

event and choose a book because 

they want to talk to someone 

different then a themselves but 

sometimes have you someone 

coming because they want to 

connect with someone like them, 

and that's the case with the 

quote here about someone saying 

they've never met anyone else 

with the same disability and you 

think they've connected since 

the event so it can be really 

powerful.

 it made me feel more like I 

originally thought I was.

These are some quotes from the 

readers.

I'm usually surrounded by people 

similar to me.

I not only learned about the 

book but I learned about myself, 

as well.

That happens a lot.

You will get a lot of comments, 

I learned don't jam book by its 

comp that exact phrasing happens 

a lot.

Basically the difference should 

be celebrated, not feared, 

ridiculed or victimized.

Help immediate learn the value 

of diverse itself.

Moderator me feel like I wasn't 

alone.

Really impactful quotes.

For the post-agency vent wrap 

up, we know it responsibility to 

send thank yous not only to the 

books and volunteers but the 

committee.

The volunteers play such an 

important role with the event 

running for us.

It is a large scale event.

We had around 20 volunteers, 

like rare staff, other students 

on campus and senior leaders on 

campus we opened this up to that 

want to be part of this, as 

well.

Give them a survey what worked 

and didn't work.

A lot of the like rare staff, 

favorite thing that library does 

each rear and it helps us bond 

and feel like we're seeing the 

impact of our work.

Definitely important to get 

people to fill out the survey, 

if they didn't do it at the 

event.

O'ering a post gathering for 

books is something you may have 

want to do.

Books always sail they wish they 

had time to talk to each other.

We've done this where it is 

pizza and they can gather and 

we've done it on Zoom as a 

drop-.

In and reviewing data can be 

time consume bug it is so 

rewarding, picking quotes and 

info graphing and a recap on a 

building to share that out.

Reminder, don't forget document 

what went wrong what didn't.

Have that debrief meeting with 

your team and submitting the 

documentation of how your event 

went within 30 days, that's 

their recommendation.

They want that, a special form 

back so send that back to the 

organization.

It has details like what were 

the books titles, how many 

conversations did they have what 

you thought about the event, 

things like that.

I think I have one more slide.

I'll skip this one but we know 

it important to share this event 

like we're doing now.

So a few things to consider for 

host, you have to submit that 

online application from the 

human library site.

Sunny that license agreement.

There's going to be parameters 

they give you around marketing, 

organizing, the the way you 

should frame your book titles 

and even the survey.

The Human Library lingo may be 

confusing for people who haven't 

done this before, so just 

something to keep in mind, if 

you go on their website now I 

think it said we publish people 

as open books.

I found we have to be careful 

with some of that because some 

people do think that they're 

going to be writing their story, 

even though it is 

conversational, there is no 

writing required.

I don't want people to think 

we're actually publishing this 

so many keep in mind the lanugo 

there.

The training for organizers, 

that's new.

It is great if you're just 

starting out.

The book depot, I think that's 

what they call it they can have 

the opportunity to be part of 

this larger event platform and 

connect with readers 

internationally after your 

event.

That is optional.

If you want to do that, you can 

give their names to the 

organization.

We've had people do that and 

find really gratifying to do 

that.

You may have a back or two drop 

out at the last minute.

I was super stressed about this 

in the past and now I just know 

that is going to happen and just 

will that in and not stress with 

it.

-- build that in and not stress 

about it.

And this can be a lot of work 

initially, specially the first 

year, but it will be worth it.

This is an opportunity to show 

our libraries we're more than 

just books, we are 

collaborative, safe spaces that 

we celebrate diversity and 

community so I hope that you 

guys will investigate hosting a 

human library and please feel 

free to ask questions in the 

chat or -- are we pausing now, 

Jennifer?

>> There have been some great 

questions coming through.

I think because many of them are 

going to also be relevant to 

Becky and Monica, I think maybe 

we should continue on and then 

we can group questions together 

that haven't become answered in 

either segment at the end so 

thank you so much, Lisa.

There's obviously a lot to 

consider, so I appreciate folks 

that you can tell from your 

questions that you're thinking 

through very ready to look at 

this more closely so thank you 

so much.

And let's go ahead and have Anne 

Arundel County library folks 

talk about their experience and 

we can shift back.

Please continue your questions 

coming, folks.

>> I love questions.

Questions are truly at the Human 

Library.

So you are actively engaging in 

human library work when you're 

asking questions and we library 

folks love questions so, yes, 

you are welcome.

So my name again is Becky Hass 

with the Anne Arundel County 

public like year, the 

programming and outreach 

manager.

Monica is with me.

You want to say a little high?

>> Hello, everything.

Keep the questions coming.

Awesome.

>> It is our favorite part.

We've been really fortunate to 

be able to help quite a few 

libraries with getting started 

so just know that this is just 

the beginning.

So I want to just assure that 

you we are happy to be resources 

going forward.

We're certainly not the end all 

be all of Human Library.

They have so many defensive 

resources through big Human 

Library out of Copenhagen.

We want to share a little bit 

about how we got started and 

just, yeah, how the different 

models look so first and 

foremost, we are with a public 

library so our model was really 

broader than the academic 

because it was open to everybody 

so, yeah, take time, as you're 

doing your research, look at 

different models.

We look academic models when we 

got started.

That was really the main group 

that was using this tool.

And, yeah, we did librarian on 

it, we talked to colleagues, we 

went at readers and experienced 

those human libraries.

That was all in person, right?

This was kind of presome of the 

virtual.

Now there are opportunities 

virtual, too, so I would 

encourage you to take time, 

spend some time really diving 

into this model.

Experience it for yourself 
 and 

talk to people.

That's one of the best parts of 

library.

Shearing is caring.

We're happy to share resources 

and know we're all learning and 

growing together with this model 

and continuing to build and 

adapt is probably one of my 

favorite things since we got 

started, how things continue to 

develop.

Now I'll let Monica share.

>> It is true this was a passion 

project for me.

You know, and the desire to 

build bridges within our 

communality where things were 

just very divisive and so 

contentious, we just really 

needed a space to be able to 

humanize each other.

We did put in a lot of hours to 

figure out how this could work 

in a public library.

It was only the academic and the 

state who shared it at 

conferences so I thank them very 

much for doing this research 

because that allowed us to be 

able to give our library 

research the the wiifm, what's 

in it for me.

To embark and get the support 

and approval do so.

When that happens, that's when 

the hard work began, like the 

real work.

Becky and I had a dream work, we 

talked about the labels, 

marginalization, stories, 

everything we could possibly 

want in that room and it was all 

up on a white board, just old 

school white board with some 

erasable markers because we 

really dream big.

You know?

Then we looked at all the people 

we would love to see 

recommended, we kind of decided 

as.

As we possibly could, once we 

began interviewing people, 

interviewing people is often as 

we could, we loved the 

intersections that we 

experienced when we started 

talking to people when we're 

interested in being books for 

us.

So it was definitely a journey, 

but it was a lovely one.

>> This is interesting how it 

changed from year-to-year.

It didn't get bigger.

S we started with, I think it 

was 12 that first year.

>> Yes, the vision, just going 

to say, the dream was 30-plus is 

where I was.

Becky had to reel me in at that 

point it was mostly she and I.

We were the ones doing the 

interviewing and planning so 

like Lisa said, by all means, 

get a team.

That's one of the great things 

that happened year two.

We had a tremendously gifted, 

invested, talented team with us 

to help with the journey but the 

first year was very small.

We went from 30 to 15.

>> And then, with the virtual, 

even smaller.

Which was perfect.

You know, we were still trying 

to figure out the virtual 

breakout rooms and Zoom and how 

to we use the technology and 

getting staff acclimated to the 

technology.

So, yeah, it's been a journey 

and trying to give ourselves 

permission to have that 

flexibility in the design, I 

think was really helpful.

Now we're going to have another 

one upcoming in may, may 14, 

person in and probably bigger 

than the virtual library.

>> I love that.

That's one of the beauties of 

this particular model.

Yes, we do have to go through 

some hoops, you know, answer 
 

some questions the human library 

agreed to so some thing as 

certain way based on their model 

but that is also very freeing in 

a lot of ways because you can 

take this model and adjust it to 

the library size, to the size 

you would have your event be.

You can really make it your own 

in a lot of ways, and it allowed 

us to make a quick transition 

from in-person to virtual when 

we had to and to also know that, 

as we move forward, our next 

event can be bigger, you know, 

because we have learned some 

things along the way.

And, there is a staff there, a 

larger staff there, who was 

interested and willing and 

wanting to do bigger.

The space is bigger.

You know, so that is very 

exciting.

That's very exciting that you 

can change and adapt it to fit 

what you would like it to be.

>> So this was the image from 

our virtual program with the 

Human Library, and yeah, we 

wanted to share a little bit 

about that flexibility.

And some of the different 

recommendations that we've had.

You want to speak on that?

>> I guess one of the things is, 

at that point, since it was year 

three for us, we were able to 

talk to books that are formerly 

been to us with person.

That was a nice starting point.

When we first began, we were 

working from scratch.

We didn't have any, like a 

repository of books.

We had to find them in the 

community.

And then, as that happened, 

books that had experienced this 

with us came and asked people 

that they knew to come and join 

us, which was lovely.

So we had some of the new books.

It was just so impactful.

It's a different feel from in 

person and virtual.

They are different peoples, it's 

true.

However, they both are so 

extremely i impactful in their own 

ways.

Whatever you are looking for, 

small, in person, virtual, know 

the community, your readers, 

your books, your staff, 

everybody is going to find a 

benefit in that.

>> One of the things we 

definitely wanted to make space 

for is training and empowering 

our books and staff.

Everyone who volunteered to be 

part of the event, but starting 

with the books, so we put 

together this list of different 

things that we wanted to make 

sure that the books understood 

were important to us and to 

design in the way that we were 

tailoring this program so that 

we could make sure that the 

books had what they needed to 

have a positive experience.

>> Absolutely.

So in person, inside.

And they came to view the space, 

they took a look at what the 

library looked like, so how many 

steps from the actual reading 

room to the green room, where 

the bathrooms are who the staff 

were, what they looked like.

Our building is two floors so to 

get them familiar with the 

space.

In the virtual realm, they 

needed to be familiar with 

breakout rooms and how it feels 

to go from one virtual space to 

another and not be like, you 

know, shaken up by -- from that 

quick move from one virtual 

space to another and how to 

reach out to us if they needed 

something.

In person, we had, you know, the 

cardses they could put up or a 

nod to a staffer person.

In the virtual realm, it was 

text message through our cell 

phones.

Let us know if you're running 

into any difficulty, if you need 

something, if your technology is 

acting up.

Those types of things.

So for each type of event, you 

have your various ways of 

getting people acclimated and 

ready to go for the day.

>> Another piece of the 

logistics, we had the readers 

were either working with the 

desk or virtually and this were 

rules that we had kind of put 

together.

Therm able to check out the book 

for 15 minutes and sometimes the 

time ended early.

That's okay.

Staff was able to help getting 

roomed from one room to the 

other.

People would get going, get 

talking and the time would fly 

by, so making sure that we had 

somebody to just lovingly remind 

people, okay, you've got five 

more minutes and then we've got 

to move to the next one.

But that the staff could help 

with that, which was great.

We also had the list of all the 

title descriptions so people had 

an idea who have they were going 

to be talking to.

I think what was really 

interesting were some of the 

unexpected stories.

Like that surprise moment.

You thoughts you were checking 

out a mystery and there is a 

little love story on the side.

Right?

That happens in our books, 

right?

So that would happen here, as 

well.

Sometimes maybe you thought you 

were talking to someone who had 

an invisible illness, turns out 

that person might also be LGBTQ, 

meet also be very conservative, 

maybe that wasn't the initial 

title.

But like us, we all carry 

different layers, like the 

beautiful onions that we are.

And sometimes those surprise 

elements that intersectionality 

was some of my favorite part of 

the day.

Those unexpect the moments where 

you go in thinking one thing and 

the next thing you kind of have 

that little surprise, either 

within yourself, maybe you 

didn't expect to have the 

response that you did to the 

book that you were talking to, 

yeah, it was just really 

interesting some of the 

conversations that would happen.

And also, with books with each 

other.

That was one of my favorite 

parts of our Human Library was 

giving the books a chance to 

read each other and some of the 

intersectionality that happened 

in those conversations, too.

>> Those intersections were 

glorious.

I couldn't have asked for more, 

better, it was just amazing.

And how much you can get to in a 

15-minute conversation with the 

complete stranger as you begin 

to talk about your various and 

sundry identities.

It's just very power.

And just the last thing I want 

to say about the logistics, 

because you're going to plan 

this.

This is how library folks, do we 

plan stuff to the nth agree.

I like to plan.

I want to think about the 

what-ifs, my brain, the 

scenarios, all the 

possibilities, all the things, 

lay completely solid ground 

work.

Okay?

What I had to learn, okay, which 

we all do is on the day of, 

flexibility is the key.

Be ready for something to go 

slightly differently than the 

way you planned it.

And that's okay.

It's absolutely okay because 

you're ready.

You're ready to say, oh, we sent 

the wrong reader to, you know, 

to the book ahead of schedule, 

so now somebody is waiting but 

these okay.

We have another book that needs 

reading.

How about you go with them for 

15 minutes and we will put you 

with a book.

All those types of things you 

have to do to try to make sure 

that everybody is getting what 

they need, they leave happy, all 

of.

That just be flexible.

Your energy is going to run 

super, super high.

If you're in person, there is 

going to be a lovely white noise 

hum in the room.

That is the hum of community.

And it is lovely.

Okay.

Be okay with it.

And make sure that you take time 

to refresh yourself, organizers.

The first year I had one of my 

books say to me at about 2:30, 

Monica, have you eaten?

I had coffee, I drink water but 

I had not sat down to eat.

Just as we are concerned about 

them, also take a look at you, 

yourself and your staff, and 

just remember those pieces, too.

>> And we tried to design for 

some of that in the spaces, so 

we had the reading hall where 

everybody was sitting but we 

also had that green room in my 

minds eye, I'm thinking of late 

night with the green room on the 

side and we had that with snacks 

and water and it had a little 

quiet music going.

Just a separate space for the 

books mostly but staff also 

utilized that a little bit.

Just as a separate space outside 

of that reading hall to just 

breathe.

You know.

Depending on how long you go, 

you might need the lunch break, 

for example.

And the other piece that I 

absolutely love was the 

reflection room this was 

something that we really learned 

and created after our first year that we 

recognized this did have the 

potential do some triggering.

And we's like rare staff didn't 

have enough resource -- we as 

library staff didn't have enough 

resources to do the wrap around 

services the wade we wanted to 

for year two.

We had two technicians that came 

and were present in the 

reflection room at that point 

was just a space to process, to 

chat, if you wanted to.

We even had some journaling and 

coloring sheets just as an 

option for people.

Yeah, was there anything else 

you wanted to add about that?

A couple of faqst, similar to 

what when he shared earlier and 

similar for the books, as well.

One thing we didn't really talk 

about yet was an aggressive 

reader to having the opportunity 

for books to raise their hand 

and we had a security guard as 

an option, a resource.

We were grateful we didn't have 

to utilize that, that guard 

ended you will being a reader 

and was one of my favorite 

responses to Human Library, he 

just loved it.

I see Lisa is joining us.

Was there something you wanted 

to share.

Go ahead.

>> Just looking through the 

questions in the chat, I was 

trying to respond to some of 

them.

There was one in here about 

recommending to register in 

advance verses drop-in.

I don't think we really got into 

that, right?

We've done both, dropping in for 

the in-person and registering 

online.

But as we mentioned, you have to 

be flexible.

For people who registered for a 

specific book at a specific 

time, it could be problematic if 

the book decides last minute 

they're sick or need to change 

the time they are available that 

can throw things off of it.

There can be a benefit for just 

the drop-in but we didn't want 

to do the drop-in for the Zoom 

because we were doing one-on-one 

considerations and we didn't 

want to pair somebody with a 

topic that could have been 

triggering for.

They without them consenting to 

it the way they could in person.

I'm sure there is a way to do it 

but we couldn't figure out how 

to replicate the same experience 

so we did the registration 

online.

You have options.

Flexibility, if you want to 

reach out to us after with 

thoughts and idea.

If you want to talk to someone 

thinking about those type of 

things, I'm your person but you 

could reach out to the Human 

Library organization, too for 

their input.

I think they did encourage us 

not to do registration for the 

online but we did end up going 

with that.

Anymore way, we're here to talk 

if you need feedback.

>> And for us, we did a a 

combination of both.

West people say I can definitely 

want to talk to these 

books.

But if we had someone that 

didn't show up, maybe the person 

was waiting in the green room.

Because it was a smaller one, we 

were able to pivot as we needed 

to on that day.

Absolutely, you have the 

flexibility to choose.

>> One of the other keys to our 

success has been our partners.

I can't emphasize enough.

I mentioned the mental health 

agency but certainly having our 

partners as part of the design.

So thinking about who we're 

going to encourage it come as 

books and maybe even thinking 

about those partners as 

potential books.

Promotional partners, anyone 

that's trying to do that 

community engagement, those are 

potential allies for you in 

working with this program.

And then, also, that wellness 

piece.

Think about the different health 

and wellness partners in your 

community that maybe could work 

with you on something like Human 

Library.

The last thing that sing just 

super important that feedback 

and impact.

The survey was mentioned in the 

chat a little bit and Human 

Library does offer a survey.

Both the academic in us, we also 

tweaked that a little bit and 

had our only survey, as well, 

because we had certain things we 

wanted to gather.

But then having that debrief 

session, too, with the staff, 

with the books, that was where 

we really got a lot of our ideas 

of what we wanted to do 

differently.

Right?

We recognize that we always have 

room to learn angell and that 

was one of the spaces we could do.

And we have the online feedback 

forms.

>> That was one of my favorite 

parts of date was the debrief, 

to find out not only were the 

readers impacted about our books 

learned something from a reader, 

from the experience, learned 

something about themselves they 

didn't know there was a lot of 

hugs and tears, you know, and 

let's get together after this 

type of, you nobody, activity, 

making a Facebook group just for 

this group of people who had come together on this day to 

volunteer to do this fantastic 

program.

And it was just extremely 

powerful, absolutely.

>> And the videos that were in 

the pre-work I think is such a 

powerful way to really feel that 

impact, to hear from people who 

were both books and readers.

And share that.

Share that with your library 

management.

Share it with your teams.

I know, as you're deciding 

whether or not to pursue, this I 

feel like those videos were 

instrumental in hims us glad 

what it looked like and how it 

impacted people.

>> Thank you.

Thank you for moving us to your 

contact slide.

As Lisa said, these folks are 

offering their e-mails for you 

to reach out and connect with 

them.

They are a great resource for 

exploring your next steps.

A couple things, in addition to 

answering the questions I want 

to reiterate these folks work 

directly with the Human Library 

organization.

I saw a couple questions about 

the licensing fee.

You definitely want to reach out 

to the Human Library and I'll 

post the link to the page where 

you complete if you're 

interested in being an organizer 

for a Human Library event.

And they can get I set up.

Somebody mentioned they haven't 

heard back from them.

We also have heard from these 

folks that it may be worth a 

calls, getting contact there.

There are questions early on, 

have people done it in a 

different way.

I know very early on when we 

started hearing about the model 

there were here libraries doing 

different things so there 

definitely are.

We chose to focus on the library 

model because of the great 

resources they provide so we 

encourage to you support that.

And then, some of the question 

that is I thought we should 

verbally address, you talked 

about the applicants and what 

those look like.

Can you talk a little bit about 

there are people excited 

thinking about the different 

kinds of books they might have 

or even a category of books they 

might have at their events?

Do you want to talk a little bit 

about the -- I know Lisa, you 

did a great job of talking about 

the scope of the Human Library 

untension of what those books 

like look I why don't you start 

in terms of what the book topics cover.

>> The first year we were trying 

to wrap our head around this, we 

came up with a list of types of 

people we would love to have to 

have a well-rounded broad list 

of anything.

We would go to specific student 

groups or clubs and see if 

anybody thought they could speak 

to any of the topics.

We kind of moved away from that 

since but it is a nice way to 

start out with brainstorming and 

I think it could work, depending 

on your community that might be 

a good kind of starting point.

But I think, like, it is really 

nice to be able to have someone 

speaking about at least one 

person speaking about ra

racereelijah on, gender.

There are three people wanting 

to talk about sexual violence 

related topics and that had 

never come up before .

We had lots covering mental 

health and not so much this 

year.

That can happen, especially if 

you're sharing the list in 

advance.

We used to share, here is what 

we have so far, hoping to entice 

people to sign up.

Maybe this helps or doesn't help 

with the types of books you get.

You could argue either way for.

That having diversity in the 

types of books you're offering.

Even if you're only going small 

scale, five books, sure they are 

different viewpoints.

I don't know if you have 

anything else to add to that.

>> I agree, slightly.

For me, quite honestly, be 

honest and real here and say to 

you often time what is I was 

looking for was somebody who did 

not fit the stereotype of what 

you might consider.

So the socioeconomic book 

happened to be a white male.

That is fantastic.

See how we can blow the lids 

off.

They had no idea what the person 

looked like.

They ended up speaking to a 

Muslim.

They anticipated a different 

look for that person.

When you get in the room and see 

the person it really -- it is a 

very powerful moment to have 

that be something that doesn't 

look like necessarily what 

you're looking for, what you 

think -- who you think you're 

going to talk to.

We had books that had really 

just sensitive topics.

People asked how do you get 

books to do that?

That is really that comfort 

level.

We had ocd, we had survivors are 

sexual violence, somebody who 

survived Jim crow, polygamists, 

poverty, Ph.D., transgender.

There is a lot of sensitive 

topics in our listing so you can 

absolutely do the best talk make 

it as diverse as possible.

>> I think the other change came 

up for both of you in talking 

about how you got started was 

looking at your library's 

programming goals.

Your library's mission.

You know, how does this align 

with your intentions with all of 

your work in the community so I 

think that's another good 

reminder.

We're definitely lots of 

questions.

Lots are nit yes, I did. gritty 

so I encourage people to explore 

the Human Library site and, as 

you move through your process, 

definitely use the learner guide 

as a place to do the deeper 

thinking around the questions.

You can customize that guide.

Reach out to presenters with 

questions you have, as well.

2467 to all three of you for 

this great work.

I can't tell you how long I've 

wanted to have folks present on 

this again so it is really 

fantastic to hear about all your 

great work I'm going to wrap 

this up.

I will send you all off to a 

short survey.

We love to collect your 

feedback.

We will provide that to 

presenters.

I will send you an e-mail later 

today once a recording is posted 

and certificate next week when 

we've got all our participants 

so thank you all so much.

Thanks to our captioner.

And we'll follow up with any 

outstanding questions, responses 

on the event additional 

resources and suggestions come 

through, so again that's your 

one-stop shop.

Thank you so much, all three of 

you for your fantastic work and 

we look forward to hearing about 

your may event and your future 

Human Library programs.

Thank you.

>> Thank you, bye.

>> Thank you.