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Until I visited the Thai Knowledge Park in Bangkok, I had never heard the phrase “living library”, and yet these instutions flourish all over the world.  What are they?  And where did this idea come from?

From teenagers in Denmark! When stabbings began to occur at rock concerts in that country, a group of teenagers took action. Realizing that hatred comes from prejudice and stereotypes, they began to confront this dual problem by bringing together people of diverse backgrounds between the ages of twelve and twenty-five, to meet in schools and other common arenas for brief conversations.

The idea spread. Libraries became preferred meeting grounds, where people could come and “check out” a book that was alive–a person whom they might otherwise never meet and with whom they could have a dialogue in a safe place. 

Living Libraries have appeared at libraries around the world–Canada, England, Japan, Slovenia, Turkey,  the U.S.–and of course Denmark! (The world’s first permanent Livng Library is in Lismore, Australia, where programs are presented every month.) They appear in small town libraries, as well as those in the world’s great cities. What links them is the courage and honesty of the participants–and the humor with which this program is presented.

“Borrow a person you normally would think you would not like…Just remember to give back the person within two hours,” a Danish Living Library card states, “You don’t even have to be able to read.” 

“What’s your prejudice?” is the question posed on tshirts worn by Living Library “books”–we all have them. Unfortunately not all of us have a Living Library where we can meet our prejudices head-on and become aware of the people behind the stereotypes. At least not yet…but with luck and work, perhaps every library everywhere will have their own permanent Living Library.

In large, polluted, hot cities, children and teenagers spend a lot of time in cool, clean shopping malls, roaming the hallways, surrounded by things to buy and fast food. In Bangkok, where shopping malls are large, extravagant consumer palazzos, one of the largest and most frequented of these contains—a library! And not just a library, but a Thai Knowledge Park.

On the eighth floor of Central World Plaza, surrounded by skyscrapers and air that is tarnished by some of the world’s worst traffic, is a place that brings books and the internet and music and movies and the performing arts all together in one huge and alluring space.  Over 30,000 books in Thai and in English are temptingly displayed, and reading areas are imaginative and enticing. A reading wall with window-like alcoves makes an instant refuge for browsers, and a spiral staricase leads to a small, book-lined room that has the feeling of a treehouse, with additional circular alcoves where  young readers can–and do– relax .

Paper and pencils wait at low tables for  young artists to use, and a room with a piano lured a young musician who left his tennis racket and school books on a nearby chair while he made music.  Improvising from classical and jazz elements, without one false note, he filled the room with melody that floated into the library’s reading area like a dream of music. 

Patterned after the world’s “living libraries” , TK Park makes reading and learning as enticing as a visit to a shopping center! Open from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. six days a week, with a full calendar of events from IT workshops to music recitals to movies to story hours, this is a place that gives more conventional mall entertainment options a run for their money.