Brampton Library is hosting Human Library: A Career Experience on Wednesday, April 7 from 7–9 pm, but you may be asking yourself, "What is a human library?"

Libraries all over the world have offered human libraries as special opportunities for their communities to connect and learn more about other people by forging new connections. A human library is not a separate library building but, rather, an experience with a living book. Books in human libraries are people who share their life experiences with the reader.

Different libraries might set up their human libraries in different ways, but generally they offer library customers the chance to "check out" a human book in order to have an open discussion and learn about that person’s life experiences, challenges and their journey to success in reaching their career goals. 

Brampton Library has successfully hosted human libraries several times before! 

In 2011, we had a human library event at our Chinguacousy branch with 16 human books available to talk to readers about a wide variety of topics. Then in 2013, we had a human library event that focused on the theme of healthy living. Our human books volunteered their time in order to create awareness about healthy choices and behaviors, healthy cooking, mental health, diabetes prevention and maintaining a balanced lifestyle. 

And in 2014, there was a human library event especially for youth — with a twist. The youth readers met with a wide variety of professionals to learn from their experiences in a speed dating format. The event was called "Career Dating" and our books had professional experience in information technology, education, marketing, politics, emergency services, trades, culinary arts, finance and the performing arts.

Unfortunately, in 2021, a human library event can't take place in person. But that doesn’t mean we can’t forge connections in our community! 

Human Library: A Career Experience will be an online version of a human library! We will be welcoming our 5 human books to share their career paths with our readers in a live event taking place via Zoom. Readers will be able to interact with books in breakout rooms where they can ask questions to learn more about that person’s life experience, what their job is like and how they have found a way to shape their career into a unique version that suits their life and interests. 

Introducing the living books for Brampton Library's Human Library: A Career Experience.

Neelam Advani, Assistant Branch Manager, RBC Meeting Place

Priya Malhotra, Priya Malhotra Art

Yosh Perera, Manager, Health Promotion and Prevention Programs, Moyo Health & Community Services

Erin Walker, Librarian, Makerspace & Digital Literacies, Brampton Library

Charmaine Williams, Brampton City Councillor

To register as a reader for Human Library: A Career Experience, please sign up through Eventbrite.