Don't Judge a Book by its Cover! Lismore's Living Library
Lismore Public Library and ordinary members of the Lismore community initiated a program in 2006 that lends living Books to members of the community. Based on an idea that was first developed by Danish youth NGO "Stop the Violence" at the Roskilde Music Festival in Denmark in 2000, this was the first time the concept had ever been launched in Australia. The Danish model was featured in October last year on "Enough Rope" with Andrew Denton and was established to counter racism and violence among young people. This concept has now spread to many countries in Europe. Lismore's Living Library project aims to celebrate diversity, foster respect and counter fear and prejudice in the community. The principle is similar to a normal library with the difference being that instead of lending a book a person of interest may be chosen from a group of living Books and borrowed for a session of around 30 minutes. Books cannot only speak, but they are able to reply to questions from the readers and ask questions and learn themselves. Humans acting as books...it is an exciting project and a very valuable one as it provides a safe and managed environment to counter negative stereotypes. The Living Library experience takes people beyond their own familiar circles of reference in a comfortable and non-threatening library situation. The Books in the collection are people representing groups that are frequently confronted with prejudices and often victims of discrimination or social exclusion. For instance, Lismore's Book collection has included people of various religious faiths; local Aboriginal people, young and old; people with depression; people with vision impairment; migrants and refugees; lesbians and gays; a farmer and many others. Positive feedback from the readers and the Books themselves has been enormous with radio stations across Australia contacting the Lismore Area Librarian, Lucy Kinsley, to find out just what is going on in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales! It is still early days but with the response so far it is safe to assume that Living Libraries will soon be popping up around Australia as other libraries initiate their own Living Library.