Borrow a Person / Not a book :: South Dublin County’s Living Libraries

Our library people are very smart and like to think about their business differently. Yesterday, 15th of October, 2009, the first ever Irish “living library” took place in the County Library, Tallaght.  For the evening the County Library issued ‘loans’ of people rather than books.  Yes, those attending who picked up their living library borrower card were able to take out take out a real person and listen to what makes them tick.

The catalogue for the evening included;

• a widow,
• a blonde lady,
• a person of the muslim faith,
• a school-phobic,
• a disabled person,
• a gay man,
• a single mother,
• an ex-illiterate,
• a black person,
• an asylum-seeker,
• an elderly person,
• a traveller and
• a recovering drug addict

This event was tremendously successful with more than 150 ‘borrowers’ attending.  These borrowers spent a little time listening to the life story of the ‘living book’.

Georgina Byrne, County Librarian of the South Dublin County Libraries brought two of the ‘living books’, a gay man and a school-phobic boy into the RTE studios to chat with Ryan Tubridy on his radio show on Wednesday 14th of October.

The audio clip above is a pod-cast from RTE of the show.