Major changes in 2010

It has been almost 10-years since "Menneskebiblioteket" was opened for the first time at Roskilde Festival in Denmark. Shortly after the first event the creators including the author of this article, began promoting the idea outside Denmark. Today more than 45 countries have introduced the concept and so far it has been a great adventure. However when we translated the name of the concept to English, we made a mistake and now the time has come to correct that mistake.

New name, logo and artwork

We have recieved documentation from attorneys representing a private company that clearly shows their right to use the old name in the United States and as we are not prepared to pay for the use of this name, we have decided to correct what has long been a mistake anyhow, the name. The correct translation from Danish is "Human Library" as it is human beings on loan and not books. And so we are happy to rectify this mistake now before we reach further territories. As of January 1st 2010 - we are now the Human Library. 

Why we do it

We feel it is imperative to keep this concept free to all non-commercial organizers and also to keep the same name across the planet. Further to that we are not in anyway prepared to pay commercial companies to further "promote" their registered name in the United States or in any other country. And we want to avoid our "readers" being confused with other name related concepts that have nothing to do with our field or mission.  

One year transition period

This year will be a celebration of diversity but also a transition period for the Human Library. A period where local organisers across the world will phase out the old name and integrate the new elements into their activities. Human Library organisers do not have to re-register but just to keep submitting their events for publishing. We are working on revising the website and so we ask that you bear with us in this transition period.

Our apologies

"We deeply apologise for this obvious inconvenience to our partners and at the same time I want to thank you all for your kind help in promoting the Human Library and communicating this change to your books, readers and partners. We hope for your understanding and stress that we are doing this to be able to continue to keep the HUMAN LIBRARY free to its readers. Please help us keep the world reading!"

Yours sincerely,

Ronni Abergel

Creator of the Human Library

Author of the guide to organisers

Founder of the Human Library Organization

PS: The old website domain will remain open for the remainder of 2010 however we encourage the more than 8.000 web sources that are linking to us. To please update their links now.