By Makenna Hall, Staff writer
The Blough-Weis Library and the Better Together interfaith group are hoping to encourage civil discourse amongst the Susquehanna community through the Human Library, occurring April 18 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The Human Library is an event that allows for conversations between people with unique stories and those willing to listen and ask questions. The volunteers sharing their stories are the “books” being checked out by the listeners, or the “readers.”
The Human Library Organization was developed in Denmark in 2000 by an anti-violence group as an activity for a popular summer festival. According to the organization’s website the idea was to challenge the festival crowds to build positive relations among each other.
On campus the intent of the project was very similar. Research librarian Ryan Ake said, “[At] the end of 2016 the library had been talking about ways that we could try and bring students together after a tumultuous fall and those kinds of things. And the Human Library was something that was coming up a lot, as more organizations were holding events like this.”
As far as the coupling with Better Together goes, Ake said it happened serendipitously, as both groups were unknowingly working towards the same goals separately.
Ake said that for now, the project will only focus on the Susquehanna community, but if feedback remains positive then they will hopefully try and take it off-campus in the future, to work on strengthening the town-gown relationship in Selinsgrove.
After signing a licensing contract with the Human Library Organization and paying a fee, Susquehanna is allowed to hold a number of events in a year. Ake said he is hoping that it can continue every year.
Although the setup is not official, the plan is to have the book volunteers stationed around the library. Each book will have come up with a book title and a synopsis for the readers to ponder through and decide who they want to talk to, according to Ake.
There will be time for discussion afterwards to collect feedback and discuss what everyone has learned, according to Erin Reid, an organizer of the event and member of Better Together.
“The hope is that students and faculty will walk away from this with a better understanding and acceptance of various groups and people and that these conversations will help everyone to feel more connected to one another,” Reid said.
Reid will be participating as a book, sharing how her identity as both a writer and as a witch enrich and feed off each other in her life.