About Human Library
The Human Library is an innovative method designed to promote dialogue, reduce prejudices and encourage understanding.The main characteristics of the project are to be found in its simplicity and positive approach.
In its initial form the Human Library is a mobile library set up as a space for dialogue and interaction. Visitors to a Human Library are given the opportunity to speak informally with “people on loan”; this latter group being extremely varied in age, sex and cultural background.
The First Human Library to be Staged in Singapore
The Human Library enables groups to break stereotypes by challenging the most common prejudices in a positive and humorous manner. It is a concrete, easily transferable and affordable way of promoting tolerance and understanding.
It has often been emphasized that Singaporean society is a fragile one that holds together only through the mutual tolerance and understanding of its diverse racial and religious groups. Top-down approaches by the government to encourage social cohesion have helped to maintain this status quo; however bottom-up activities at the individual level are also important in promoting social interaction, and the Human Library will play a small but important role in doing this.
We want to stage a Human Library to help encourage the kind of interaction between social groups that is seldom seen in Singapore, and use this interaction to break down the boundaries between people, resulting in a more caring society that understands the needs of each other.
More details about Human Library Organisation and Human Libraries held in other parts of the world can be found at HumanLibrary.Org.
