Lending "People" at European Libraries

We knew some European libraries had achieved technical innovations ahead of North American ones, but now they're revolutionizing the notion of "content." In Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Hungary, public libraries have begun lending "people"—members of minority groups and others who could educate "borrowers" in order to temper their prejudices. The city library in Malmo, Sweden, for example, recently made a gay person, a Muslim imam, a journalist, an animal rights activist, and a member of the Roma group available for 45-minute chats, according to the AP.

The "Living Library" project was first introduced at a Danish festival. In the highly liberal Netherlands, the library in Almelo added a few more categories, including drug addicts, asylum seekers, and the physically handicapped. "Most meetings will last 45 minutes, we imagine," director Jan Krol told The Telegraph. "You can ask anything you like, but racist or strong language is not allowed."