Tired of flipping through pages? Wish your textbooks could talk? 

A talking textbook might sound like something out of Back to the Future, but the librarians at Humber ITAL will come close this semester with the Human Library.

The Human Library event will take place at the North campus next Tuesday, Feb. 2 in the Seventh Semester Room from 12-5 p.m. The event heads south to Lakeshore on Wednesday and takes place in the Lakeshore Library from 12-5 p.m.

Students, faculty and alumni will be able to sign out living “books” for 30-minutes at a time. There are ten books available at North campus and nine at Lakeshore. Titles include: Person Living with HIV, Devout Muslim, Teenage Runaway, Social Activist, and Immigrant Playwright. 

“Readers” are invited to sign out “books” of interest, and to talk with the person and ask frank questions to get a better understanding of their life. The event encourages participants to challenge stereotypes and preconceptions and to learn from the experiences of other people.

While unusual, the concept of a Human Library is not new; the first Human Library was held in 2000 at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. Since 2000, Human Library events have been held in almost thirty countries.

“As an event, it’s gaining a lot of notoriety and success,” Dalfen said. “The event takes the idea of a library and extends it into a community in a way that hasn’t been done before.”

For more information or to reserve a living book in advance, visit the Human Library web page: http://library.humber.ca/HumanLibrary.