Introduction

A Human Library or Living Library is a metaphorical version of an actual library where, in place of actual books, Living Books, people with experience using social work services, directly or as carers to those receiving services, narrate a chapter from their experiences to a small group of social work student ‘readers’. Two approaches are presented from two universities, one from the United Kingdom and the other from Finland. In the University of Sheffield (UK), people with experiences of social work services, teachers and students have developed living libraries as a regular feature of the syllabus for a qualifying master's degree programme in social work since 2014. In the Diaconia University of Applied Sciences (Diak, Finland), bachelor-level students in social services initiated and organised a Human Library event as part of their project studies. In this article, the terms Living Library and Human Library are used interchangeably.

Background to the Human Library/Living Library

The Human Library method has been employed globally as an anti-oppressive tool to bring together representatives of different minorities in society who volunteer to share their life stories and experiences in order to help others overcome prejudice using active dialogue based on respect (Pardasani and Rivera, 2017). The development of the Human Library has offered a new way of bringing the experience of people who have used social work services into the classroom. According to the Council of Europe web pages (Council of Europe, n.d.), ‘the first ever living library (Menneske Biblioteket in Danish) was organised in Denmark in 2000 at the Roskilde Festival. The original idea had been developed by a Danish youth NGO called “Stop the Violence” (Foreningen Stop Volden) as part of the activities they offered to festival goers’ (Human Library, n.d.).

Vision, values goals

The Living Library seeks to challenge oppression. Everyday oppression occurs when individual actions, the application of discriminatory laws or the operation of social structures impairs a person's ability to engage in civic society fully. This might include deprivation of an individual's right to make a fair living, to partake in different facets of social life or to enact certain of their human rights.