3.4 Generar conocimiento en red

Mensenbieb

I suppose that the Library we have at the EOIs are not the typical Biblioteca Escolar. Our students are mainly adults and we're not really educating the way we try to educate younger people of which the encouragement to read forms a part. Of course we do try to get our students to read, but mainly with an eye on language acquisition. As we have seen in some other enties in this blog we have acitivities that might serve as an incentive to reading such as the BookClub and the Literary contests that we organise. Some of the things we have seen during this course are surely going to contribute to a more attractive access to our library and its resources. So, when we are showing the library to new students we will consider how to visualise these new aspects. For this last point (3.4 I remembered a special library in Amsterdam that I will try esplain in the following lines and that might give extra ideas to Readers of this Blog and users of Libraries that are not familiar with  this activity.

For the purpose of this blog and this course I remember an interesting concept that I first saw in my hometown Amsterdam. It is called Mensenbieb wowhich means something like People's Library or Human Library. I have also seen the same idea in Scandinavia where they called it Living Library. I suppose we could call it Biblioteca de Personas in Spanish. If you can come up with a better name ....?

The Mensenbieb is a library ... with people! Here you can borrow "living" books. The "books" are people you wouldn't normally talk to so easily. Think about transgender, a vegan, an Imam or a refugee. Somebody a little different from what we consider "normal" and therefore running a risk of being excluded, ostracised or discriminated against.


The Mensenbieb literally brings people together for a conversation, thus contributing to a society that's more tolerant and understanding. This is a non-profit making organisation whose aim it is to help construct a society in which there is room for every individual. In this library you have the opportunity to meet people that you would normally never have the chance to speak to. In an ordinary library you borrow a book; here you borrow a person!



Without payment you can speak with him or her and you learn the stories behind what is first just a name, a word or a face. Human Library encounters widen your horizons and open doors to worlds that were probably completely unknown to you. The Mensenbieb has been lending people in different locations. There is an actual place in Amsterdam where the library is, but these people can also visit schools, universities, markets, festivals, congress meetings and park.

In our EOI Ávila we have some foreigners who are studying Spanish language and culture and sometimes, in our library, we organise little speeches so that they can explain a little bit about some of their traditions. In December we often discuss the ways in which Christmas is celebrated in the different countries. The Library is organised differently. Often there is a certain concept under which a human book is clasified. These could be as diverse as jobs, hobbies, origins, religions and nationalities. This is really a global 🌏 movement, though it started in Copenhagen around the year 2000. Here is a website that explains the idea nicely in Spanish: La Piedra de Sísifo. I would also like you to play this little video in which the library is explained in English.

I suppose you get the idea. I'm not sure if there's a simmilar thing going on in Spain , but I'm practically sure that there are initiatives.






I believe that even in a Primary School this idea could very interesting. Imagine a school somewhere in Spain. There practically no immigrants and all the children are Spanish. Still you could find interesting ways of turning the pupils into books that you can borrow. A student might be from single-parent family, have brother with Down syndrome, love horses, have a certain handicap, be an only child, come from a numerous family, be an orphan; you name it. The children would take out a "bookpupil" and spend some time talking. I think a deeper understanding and appreciation could develop between students that might otherwise be indifferent to each other or even show a certain degree of hostility. I'm considering doing the experiment in my school in Avila. I'll let you know if/when it happens and publish results on this blog.


Jan