Living Library / Broaden Your World!

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Living Library

It was years ago when my coordinator told me about the idea of living library. To be honest, I hadn't heard this term until that time. My first meeting with living library happened in the photo that can see above 4 years ago. Living library is one of the best things to create diversity in public and help people broaden their minds. Living library is the the place where cultures meet.

When we had this living library above 4 years ago, I was one of the few foreigners who were living in the town of Skofja Loka which is a small place in Slovenia. I was living there as person who came from a country which is completely different from Slovenia. I had many things to tell those participants that you can see above. It was the place where I could help people learn about my country and all experiences I had lived till that time.

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Different Perspectives

My mission in the living library organization I joined was to inform people about my experiences, my country and the reason of my presence in Slovenia. As it was a different topic for people who joined the activity, I had chances to talk to some curious people and I did my best to encourage them to go on some similar adventures in their lives, giving them the feeling of breaking the borders in our minds.

Some people couldn't speak English very well. Instead of reading me as a book, they used some translators who helped us to construct bridges between cultures. People surely learn lots of things from books, but I think, what is more useful is to learn the things from people who have already experienced in their own lives. Listening to someone's words can be more effective than reading on papers.

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Diversity

This is the key. word which is aimed in living library activities. In our living library, there were people who had different opinions about various topics. Some of our members had different sexual preferences. One of them was a Muslim while another one was atheist. This is the main idea of living library. People who have got different opinions and experiences have chances to express themselves.

It surely helps you to break some stereotypes in your mind. When you have no idea about a topic, you are likely to be extremist on certain topics, because you just follow media or believe in things that might be just a humor. However, if you talk to a person who is experienced in that topic and objective enough to express what she knows, you can easily widen your mind and world at the same time.

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Speak up!

As you can see in the image, being different makes a huge difference in living libraries. If you have something to share with people in societies , you are eligible to be a living book in living libraries. Living libraries are getting popular day by day. Universities are organizing events to bring people who have different life experiences to share with others who are in need of information.

The most crucial point about living library is to create awareness in societies. Our differences helps be unique and this uniqueness makes our world more beautiful place to live. Your sexual or religious preference is not a problem at all. It actually shows the beauty of living together with different opinions and preferences. This is the things that people should learn and teach others.

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Education

Education happens in all parts of our lives. In my opinion, living libraries are perfect organizations to educate people about life and give them new perspectives. Have you ever been a part of living libraries? If you have any experiences to share, you are welcome to state them in comment section.

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