Alexandra Allaire / McGill Tribune

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to talk to someone busted for dealing pot, a struggling single mom, a concert pianist, or a disabled person who grew up in “the place of the belugas”? A special library event held this week provided students with the time and place to talk to these characters and others, at no cost.

McGill’s Living Library was founded on the idea of the Human Library—a concept started in 2000 at a youth festival in Denmark. The event was sponsored by a variety of campus organizations and volunteer librarians, and was first organized at McGill in 2011.

The premise is simple: each recruited volunteer personalizes a book by preparing a story about themselves.  On the day of the Living Library, students, staff, and the public visit the Living Library at the Redpath Library and look through a catalogue of books.

“It’s called the catalogue, just like a library, and it’s a listing of books that people can check out,” librarian volunteer Sarah Wilkinson said.

After reading the book descriptions and choosing a book, an appointment is made with the “book.” Some books, like The Flaming Teabag or How Catching Fire Brought Me Down to Earth are more popular than others. Appointments are made in 30-minute blocks, but it’s easy to get caught up in the story and go over the allotted time.

While the subject is telling his or her story, the viewer is encouraged to ask questions and find out more. The level of interaction is unique to the Living Library and makes for a more animated level of learning.

One of the main goals is to break down prejudices or misconceptions that each “book” feels bound by.

“If we can say that one of the tasks of a liberal university education is to provide opportunities for learning while instilling a lifelong habit of questioning cherished assumptions, then the benefit of the McGill Living Library project would be to challenge members of the McGill community to examine their beliefs and attitudes toward difference,” reads the McGill Living Library’s website.

During a slow period, June Apostol, a Masters student in library and information studies discussed why she volunteered to participate as a book. Apostol, a volunteer firefighter from Pennsylvania, represented the book The Flaming Teabag.

“I’m hoping to take this back to Philadelphia and pitch it to one of the city libraries or my hometown library. I think it’s very valuable and I think it’s very interesting,” she said.

Apostol also explained why she felt that it’s important that other libraries consider projects similar to McGill’s Living Library.

“Libraries are changing and I think that people who think that libraries are dying have an incorrect assumption about what libraries are,” she said. “Libraries aren’t just books, [or] just books and DVDs, [or] just, you know, fiction libraries and video games. They can be e-books, they can be e-audiobooks, they can be people, they can be a collection of names or individuals that know different skills.”

David Haberman, a U3 student at McGill, stopped by the Living Library to check out the book Please Don’t Shout—I’m Only Blind.

“I think it’s nice that the libraries are looking to expand [their] role because [their] former responsibility as a place to take out books has gone the way of the rotary telephone—it’s not useful anymore,” Haberman said.

Since the rise in popularity of the Internet and the legitimacy of online research, libraries have been forced to evolve their traditional services. McGill has discovered that the Living Library may be a good place to start.